Allan's Blog

Christmas- a season for moral cowardice?

2011-12-25T19:51:00.002Z

In his Christmas message, Archbishop Vincent Nichols sees fit to criticize Israel for constructing a security barrier in the West Bank to protect Jews against terrorist attacks. No mind that dozens of Egyptian Coptic Christians are still warm in their graves after being killed by Islamists. That warrants no mention. No matter that dozens of Nigerian Christians have been killed by Islamists on the very Christmas Day when the good Archbishop’s speech was being delivered – while they were peacefully celebrating their Holy Day in their Churches. That is of no consequence to the Archbishop.

No, that does not warrant any mention. The criticism of a civilized democracy like Israel for trying to protect its own citizens from precisely that sort of Islamic terror carries no dangers for the Archbishop and his flocks. And he knows that this type of moral cowardice is a no-lose stance. One would have thought that the ethnic cleansing by the Palestinian National Authority of Christians from the once majority Christian town of Bethlehem – the focus of today’s ceremonies and whose population constituted 60% in 1990 to less than 15% today! – would have given pause for thought, especially when compared with the exponential growth of the Christian population within Israel.

No, for the good Archbishop the only game in town is criticism of Israel, the one state in the region where Christians do have full protection and equality.

But he is mistaken if he feels that this approach will curry favour with the Islamists, and will help to remove Christians in the Arab lands from danger, especially after the Arab Spring returns even more Islamists to power. No, Archbishop. You are considered a Dhimmi, an inferior person in Islam, and they expect this sort of subservience from you, as they expect you in trembling to distance yourself from anyone they consider willing to stand up to them.

In his Christmas message, the Pope too made no mention of the murder of Christians around the Islamic world, only “even-handedly” praying for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks – as if that would do anything to alleviate the situation of Christians across the Arab world.

Until the Roman Catholic Church realises that the only steadfast ally they have in the region is the Jewish state, I fear that Christians will continue to be murdered in their hundreds around the Middle East, while the the Church leaders glibly condemn Israel.

After the Arab Spring, now the Israeli summer...

2011-07-31T17:43:00.004+01:00

Anyone watching the series of uprisings in the Middle East could only surmise that it was just a matter of time before the Israelis rose up in revolt against the oppressive regime that rules them. We marvel as the Libyan ruler Gaddafi mows down his subjects by the hundred, standing up bravely against the combined superpower forces of NATO. And the Syrian leader Assad attacks the city of Hama, where due to his restraint the death toll in the current campaign is only in the hundreds and has yet to reach the glorious total - reputedly 40,000 dead - achieved by his father in the same town in 1982. No, the Israelis have surely more reason to protest than their Arab neighbours.

Inspired by earlier protests in Israel against the price of cottage cheese, the oppressed proletariat have massed in their dozens in the main towns. And do not mock at cottage cheese; I myself am partial to the odd dollop on my breakfast crispbread. This, I consider, is one of the basic Human Rights, hitherto ignored by the United Nations (but not now by the British media). Any government which permits the price of cottage cheese to rise above a level which allows it to be purchased by the most impoverished citizen is surely guilty of - at the very least - a Crime Against Humanity. Count me among the protesters; today, I am with you - Israeli Cottage Cheese Protesters. We in the West owe it to the downtrodden cottage-cheese-less masses in Israel to mount flotillas, filled with cottage cheese, if that vile regime will allow them to approach their shores.

And it is not only cottage cheese - although that is bad enough. After having spent 6 weeks in a luxury three-bedroom apartment in Tel Aviv, I was disgusted to learn that there are even more luxurious 6-10 bedroom apartments being built in the plusher quarters of that city. Ten bedrooms! Why should any capitalist - with the requisite capital - be able to afford such a flat in Rothschild Boulevard (now that's an appropriate name) and not me? I am with you, Oh Israeli protesters, Luxury Flats for Everybody! is our slogan.

And what about the cost of raising children - another of the issues being raised? I assure you, anyone with kids will tell you that this is no laughing matter. Especially, with Jewish children who adamantly refuse to leave the parental home until they are themselves married with children. We demand free creches and kindergartens for all in Israel. (Oh, they do have State Kindergartens in Israel already? Well surely not enough. And so what if in the UK we don't have any; since when do we judge Israel by our standards?)

And it was only to be expected that violence would be exhibited by the police of that illegitimate entity. The Guardian published a photograph of a police officer discreetly standing behind an activist. It is highly possible that the activist had been ticked off really harshly by that policeman.

So stand by our Israeli protesters: Proletariat of the world unite! we have nothing to lose but our cottage cheese.

Our Two Minutes' Hate

2011-07-15T14:07:00.004+01:00

I am exhausted, yet peculiarly refreshed. I have just finished my daily Two Minutes' Hate.

In George Orwell's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Two Minutes' Hate is a daily period in which Party members of the society of Oceania must watch a film depicting The Party's enemies (notably Emmanuel Goldstein and his followers) and express their hatred for them and their principles of democracy.

At last we have a demonic Goldstein figure, the embattled press baron (the adjectives and nouns are de rigeur) Rupert Murdoch . The media, TV , radio, newspapers have non-stop devoted every loving minute to expressing venom for this eater of babies, this cannibal, this mass murderer, this.. I am lost for words.

No matter that the United Kingdom is descending into economic misery, that our armed forces build aircraft carriers with no aircraft to carry, that our Parliament has been shown to be a den of corrupt expenses cheats. No matter that the Eastern Mediterranean is aflame with revolutions in Tunisia and Libya , as well as Egypt and elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East; that a thousand have been murdered in Syria, that the Sudan is approaching ominously to a war after partition,..we can forget all of this.

We have at last a focus for our frustrations, our hatred; poor Rupert.

Don't worry, Rupert. If it wasn't you it would be someone else. We need you; and in serving as an outlet for the outpouring of our venom, you provide a greater service to our great nation than your newspapers ever did.

Green Jews

2011-07-12T10:03:00.003+01:00

The other day we were invited round to lunch by a Jewish couple who had recently moved to our neighbourhood. As it was a lovely day, one of those rare English summer days when you have to take advantage of every minute of sunshine, we spent some time in their garden. My wife and I could only gaze in awe and wonderment at the sight. Lush greenery, exotic flowers and plants, bushes and trees, reminiscent of the Brazilian rain forest, or possibly more accurately of the tamed naturalness of a Capability Brown. Not, I thought unkindly, your typical Jewish garden. The hostess - the gardener in question - kindly offered us some cuttings.. "Cuttings, noch", I thought, echoing the Manchester writer Howard Jacobson's Yiddish self putdown.

And yet, and yet. The Jews' ancient history depicts them as agriculturists extraordinaire, well ahead of their time with respect to ecological questions. The Torah itself is strong on sustainable agriculture, ordaining every seventh year (Shmitah year) as an annual rest for the land. The Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus, writing around 100 C.E., rather scathingly refers to this practise among the Jews as due to their love of indolence[1]! He otherwise notes the fertility and cultivation of the soil; as does the Romano-Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus, who wrote in 75 C.E., referring to the Jews of the Galilee, “their soil is universally rich and fruitful, and full of the plantations of trees of all sorts, insomuch that it invites the most slothful to take pains in its cultivation, by its fruitfulness; accordingly, it is all cultivated by its inhabitants, and no part of it lies idle.“ and of Samaria, “They have abundance of trees, and are full of autumnal fruit, both that which grows wild, and that which is the effect of cultivation"[2].

Perhaps the destruction of Jerusalem and the subsequent dispersal, depriving Jews of their own country, and involving centuries of persecution and moving from one temporary host country to another, militated against the traditional Jewish love of land and cultivation.

But the more recent history of the Jews shows that since their return to their homeland they have once again become world leaders in cultivation and fruit and vegetable production. Due to the ever-present problem of water resources, agriculture has become a less important element of the GDP, but now Israel is discovering innovative techniques for growing more produce with less water[3].

And continuing the ancient Jewish ecological tradition.

[1] Tacitus, The Histories, Volume V, 5.4.
[2] Flavius Josephus: The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem, Chapter 3.2 and 3.4.
[3] See the excellent Wikipedia article , Agriculture in Israel.

The midnight knock comes to West Dumbartonshire

2011-07-02T17:37:00.005+01:00

24 May 2011: West Dumbartonshire , Scotland, County Council has enacted a law banning books printed or published in Israel.
Heinrich Heine "Where they burn books, so too will they in the end burn human beings." ("Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.")
___________________
Picture a small cottage in West Dumbartonshire, some time in the summer of 2011. It is midnight and there is a fierce knocking on the door. Sarah, fearfully, in her dressing gown, peers through the window.

“Who is it?”

“Nothing to worry about , Madam, just a mere formal enquiry.”
She opens the door to the two policemen standing outside.

“Madam, I am Sergeant McTaggart and this is my assistant, Hamish McGivern. Would I be correct in assuming that this is a Jewish household?”

“Well, ...” Sarah is hesitant.

“No worries, Madam, but we have information that leads us to believe that you may be in possession of illegal material.”

“Illegal material? There is nothing of that nature here.” Sarah is nonplussed.

“Well, Madam, we have reason to believe that there may be Jewish books, or, more specifically books published in “ – here the Sergeant steels himself to pronounce the word –“Israel, in your possession. No? Perhaps a Hebrew Bible, or...whatever.” McTaggart is clearly not totally familiar with what is, after all, a new area of police enquiry.

“Well, we do have an old family bible from my grandparents, but we’re really not very Jewish...”

“No problem, Madame. Could we possibly have a look at this, er, family bible?”

“Certainly, sergeant”.

Sarah rummages in a cupboard, and comes up with a large dog-eared volume.

“Thank you, Madame.” McTaggart thumbs through the volume, initially in the wrong sense, and then happens on the flyleaf.

“I see that this book was published in Jerusalem. Would that be West Jerusalem or East Jerusalem, Madame?” McTaggart has clearly been through the police Forbidden Book Section’s orientation course.

Sarah is at a loss here. “We’re not all that Jewish, you know. I got it from my grandparents and...” Her voice drops off.

“I’m sorry, Madame, but we shall have to impound this volume. If it is found to contravene the Illegal Material (Books) Statute24052011 we shall, I very much regret, have to dispose of it in the specified manner. Now – do you have anything else you would like to show me. Let me advise you that you are already in contravention of the Statute and may be faced with serious penalties if you are found to be concealing any further illegal material. “

Sarah is now trembling nervously. “I’m sorry, I really didn’t know...”

“Madame, ignorance of the law is not a defence. Please, I insist, show me any other material of this nature that you have, otherwise Hamish here will return very shortly with a search warrant, and I can assure you that we will not miss anything.”

Sarah begins to weep. “My late father left an old Hebrew prayer book...I’ll get it from the loft.”
She returns and hands a rather dusty book to McTaggart, who looks at the latest find.

“Hmmm. I see that this was published in London, so it may be OK. But, just to be sure, we will take it along in any case. You don’t want any more trouble, Madame, do you?”
The policemen make to leave, when McTaggart spots a metal cylinder attached to the doorpost.

“Would this be what is termed a Mezzuzah, Madame?” He has really been an apt pupil at the banned books section training course.
Sarah looks through her tears. “I don’t really know. When my parents passed on they left me the house, and I didn’t want to remove it – I thought it was a good luck charm or something..”.

“That’s as may be – but as like as not this contains material which was made in - again McTaggart’s voice trembles slightly before pronouncing the accursed word – Israel. We shall have to take this away. Hamish, get the crowbar. Sorry we inconvenienced you, Madame, but really, I am afraid that you should have known better than to retain such material in your possession. I hope the magistrate will take a lenient view as this is probably a first offence. Good evening.”

And with that the policemen were gone.

But that is only the beginning......

Geneva International Jewish Film Festival 2011

2011-04-04T20:08:00.003+01:00

I attended the first Geneva International Jewish Film Festival last week (23-27 March 2011). Based on the UK equivalent, founded by Judy Ironside, the selection of films was of an internationally high standard and in most instances the director or key actor was present to engage with the audience in discussion. Particularly moving was Inside Hanna’s Suitcase, the story of the journey of the curator of a small Holocaust education centre in Japan to discover the story of a suitcase left from the mass murder. Director Larry Weinstein enthralled an audience of schoolchildren who participated in a vigorous question-and-answer session after the showing. Also notable was the award-winning Czech film Protektor, set in German-occupied Prague of the Thirties. I had the good fortune to interview Jana Plodkova, whose performance as the Jewish wife of a radio presenter won her Best Actress in the Czech Film Academy Awards.

Another notable film was Precious Life, which tells the true story of the an Israeli doctor’s fight to save the life of Mohammed Abu Mustafa, a four-month-old Palestinian infant from Gaza who suffers from a genetic disorder in his immune system. This film was short-listed in the 83rd Academy Awards for Best Documentary. The doctor, Dr. Raz Somech, was present to answer questions.

Finally, an excellent film The Matchmaker directed by Israeli Avi Nesher, who was also present to answer questions about his film, ended an excellent filmic feast.

There were 17 films in all, of which I managed to get to see13! For a full listing of the films see the festival Homepage.

The Festival was a total sell-out, which augurs well for future events in what promises to be an annual series.

At last – a great victory for Arab heroes

2011-03-14T16:33:00.002Z

The protracted military operations in Libya, with neither side yet achieving ultimate victory in spite of the great material superiority of the pro-Gaddafi forces, have proved somewhat of an embarrassment to the reputation of Arab fighting prowess. But one recent success at least has shown what the Arab fighting machine is still capable of.

On Saturday night 12th March 2011, while they slept in their beds, five members of an Israeli family were killed; the parents , two boys, one aged eleven and a toddler of three and, greatest success of all, a three-month old baby who had her throat slashed. It really takes some courage to cut the throat of a three-month-old but, as she was sleeping at the time, this was probably not beyond the ability of a well-trained Arab militant.

It is not often that our Arab friends can claim a great heroic victory, but this event showed what they are really capable of when they try. Celebrations resounded throughout Gaza, with celebratory sweets being handed out. Doubtless this epic feat will be commemorated by the naming of squares and football teams, the striking of medals, and long-lasting adulation throughout the Arab world.

Israeli babies – tremble in your cots. You have met your match!

Cameron on Democracy

2011-03-03T14:17:00.003Z

By his insensitive excursion to a Middle East aflame with insurrection in an attempt to bolster – of all things – arms sales, David Cameron has shown a complete lack of understanding of feelings in that area. But worse, Cameron exhibits total ignorance of what “democracy” means, arguing that dismissing the Muslim world as unsuited to democracy amounts to “prejudice bordering on racism”.

Democracy is not the mere counting of ballots. By that measure, Adolph Hitler, who was elected democratically and – if the newsreels of the époque are anything to go by – was adored by the German people – was one of the most democratic leaders in history.

No. Democratic governance should reflect the will of the majority while respecting the aspirations of the minority. It is in this sense that democracy is indeed incompatible with Islam. The true Muslim believer can never respect the faiths of his non-Muslim fellow citizens; this is expressly ruled out by the Koran, which relegates such, at best, to ‘dhimmitude’, a subservient position with regard to that of the Muslim. That is why a gathering of two million Egyptians in Tahrir Square, shouting in unison “Together we march on Jerusalem”, cannot be described as a step towards democracy.

Arab world awash with revolt and massacre - and the UN acts at last.

2011-02-21T16:11:00.002Z

During the recent rioting in Libya, a Benghazi doctor appeared on Aljazeera television, describing the wholesale massacre of his fellow-citizens who were protesting peacefully, murdered by heavy weapon fire. "Where is the United Nations, where is the Human Rights council?", he cried out.

He need not have worried. The UN Security Council has indeed been in action.

In Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria, Jordan and Iran, protests have been held, with what must now total thousands of peaceful protestors being murdered on the streets!

But the UN has not been inactive.

At last the Security Council has met - to do what?

To condemn Israel for wishing to build a few homes in its capital city, Jerusalem.

Perhaps this is not totally surprising. All the above-named autocratic tyrannies - Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria, Jordan and Iran - have been members of the Security Council. Israel has never been invited to join this august body.

So, as this eminent group of 14 po-faced imbeciles gathered solemnly around the table to condemn Israel - with the cries of the massacred citizens of at least eight Middle-Eastern and North-African regimes screaming in their ears -only the 15th member, the United States, represented by Ambassador Susan Rice, saw what a complete charade the whole shoddy business was, and applied its veto.

No surprise too that the United Kingdom voted with the condemnation; its brain-impaired Foreign Minister William Hague had already condemned Israel for "belligerency" during the Egyptian uprising. (Don't try to figure this out - put it down to congenital madness.)

The UN must collectively go down on its knees daily to thank God for Israel. Without Israel, what would there be for it to do?

Lies, Damned Lies and The Guardian

2011-02-15T18:10:00.004Z

Consider the following headline as it might appear in a newspaper:
________________________
Suspect: “I killed my neighbour”
Yesterday local police interviewed Mr Joe Bloggs following the death of his neighbour. He told our reporter “ I killed my neighbour”.
(End of story.)
____________________
Suppose now that the actual words said by Mr Bloggs to the reporter were:

"The police believe I killed my neighbour. I swear to you, it’s totally untrue – I really liked the guy and would do nothing to hurt him.”
__________________________________________

Note that the first quotation, as it might be used by a mendacious newspaper, is 100% accurate – the words cited are indeed (some of ) the words used by Mr Bloggs.

If you believe that such malicious reporting is impossible by a newspaper such as the Guardian, well, think again. The newspaper would not get away with it in a court of English Law. But when it comes to Israel and the Guardian, anything goes.

Here is an account by the Guardian of the “words” of Mrs Tzipi Livni, Israel's former foreign minister, taken from the Aljazeera-leaked Palestine Papers, as reported on the 24 January 2011:

______________
'The Israel policy is to take more and more land day after day and that at the end of the day we'll say that it is impossible, we already have the land and cannot create the state.' Tzipi Livni, then Israeli foreign minister
____________________________________________________ The paper now acknowledges that the actual words of Israel’s one-time Foreign Minister were:
__________________________________
"I understand the sentiments of the Palestinians when they see the settlements being built. The meaning from the Palestinian perspective is that Israel takes more land, that the Palestinian state will be impossible, the Israel policy is to take more and more land day after day and that at the end of the day we'll say that it is impossible, we already have the land and cannot create the state."

On February 12th the paper, in a small aside, acknowledged that their selective quote, as given above the correct version, “may have given a misleading impression”. Hats off to Just Journalism for squeezing this reluctant admission from the Guardian.

May have given a misleading impression? If it is the Guardian’s intention to foster hatred of the Jewish state, they are doing a very good job. However, if they believe that anyone can now take seriously anything they report on Israeli politics - well – they have just blown it.

One, two, three, or four-state solution?

2011-02-14T11:55:00.003Z

Recently the Board of Deputies, the UK's "Jewish parliament", voted on a resolution concerning an approach to the Mid-East peace process. By a large majority, they defeated a proposal by the executive which, inter alia, called for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. The totally justified reasoning behind this rejection was the feeling that it is not up to Diaspora Jews to prescribe what solution should be adopted by the Israeli government to problems which, in essence, affect their own citizens.

However, an additional reason might well be offered: namely, the two-state solution seems only one of many possible outcomes - and by no means the most likely. For example, it is entirely possible to envisage 1,2,3 or even 4-state solutions.

One state solution: This is the one favoured by the Islamic world - a national entity including essentially the current boundaries of Israel and the Palestinian Authority with a single government. Demographically, this would rapidly become just another Muslim state in the area, removing what many Muslims consider a blot on the otherwise totally Islamic texture of the region. This joining-up of two different ethnic or religious groups within the one area is precisely the opposite of what was done, for example, in the case of India and Pakistan in order to avoid internecine strife. This particular end of the Jewish nature of Israel – another ”final solution” - is likely to be resisted by the government of Israel, and so it won’t happen.

Two-state solution: The mantra of a two-state solution is currently being chanted by all the pundits. This completely disregards the wishes of the democratically-elected government of Gaza – and the fact that Hamas is totally opposed to such an outcome. In their speeches to their publics in Arabic it also appears that this would not be a satisfactory ultimate outcome for the Fatah rulers in the PA. Given the situation in Gaza vis-à-vis Israel, after Israel’s withdrawal from that strip of land, it is not clear that anything other than a totally disarmed region would be acceptable to most Israelis either – and unlikely that the PA would accept such restrictions.

Three-state solution: Given the ferocity of the enmity between Hamas and Fatah, it is unlikely that these two groups could co-exist within the same national entity. This opens up the possibility of three co-existing states; Israel, a PA-ruled region -essentially what is termed the West Bank – and a Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Four-state solution: It is estimated that at least half of Jordan’s citizens are Palestinians. The “Jordan option” has always been considered as a viable one, but is mainly resisted by Arabs who see this as a reduction of their territorial claims to the whole region, if it is considered as the only state for Palestinians. But with the addition of the West Bank and Gaza, this would seem a generous area to fulfill Palestinian ambitions. Given the recent upheaval in Egypt, and the resulting echoes in Jordan, it is by no means impossible that the Palestinian residents of that state would express their desire for autonomy, as a step towards the creation of their own state.

So, with a bit of lateral thinking, it is clear that a two-state solution is not the only one, and perhaps not even the most viable one.

The Israel Pathology

2011-02-09T16:04:00.004Z

As the once-great United Kingdom slips from being a second-rate power to a third-rate one, at last we have found the solution – blame Israel. Our Foreign Secretary, William Hague – not celebrated for his wisdom – has outshone himself. Rather more subtle than blaming Israel for releasing sharks on our coastal waters, at last we see why the peoples of Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Jordan, Yemen and others are revolting against their corrupt regimes; it’s because of the failure of the Peace Process! Blaming Israel is of course the magic formula for keeping the masses happy – nowhere more so than in Merrie England. And this attitude is perhaps best described as a pathology, as Evelyn Gordon writes in Commentary Magazine.

Israel, says Hague, should cease its “belligerent language” . This “language” amounted to Netanyahu expressing fears that regime change in Egypt might alter the situation on Israel’s southern border. And of course as Israel is the only country in the world which, in Hague’s view if his previous statements are anything to go by, is denied the right to self-defense, this would no doubt be considered unduly provocative.

In fact, unlike the UK and the US, Israel has largely held its counsel during the current Mid-East turmoil, much as China and Russia have done. This is the difference between statesmenlike foreign secetaries, and congenital idiots like Hague.

As Melanie Philips says, with her usual acumen, “with friends like these who needs enemies”.

The Alliance Israelite Universelle and Emma Benassein

2010-11-09T01:44:00.009Z

I attended a Film Showing at the Jewish Museum in London last night (7 Nov 2010) to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the founding of the Alliance Israelite Universelle (AIU) – the network of schools across the Maghreb which did so much to educate the poor Jews of that region. It was founded in 1860 following the 1840 Damascus anti-Semitic pogroms, and more particularly the forced conversion by the Vatican of a Jewish child (Edgard de Mortara) in 1858. It could have had no more eminent Jewish initiators, which included Adolphe Cremieux, the 1870 French Justice Minister (1796-1880) and René Cassin (1887-1976), drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Nobel Peace Prize (1968).

The presentation was in the form of two sequential French TV Channel 2 programmes in the series “A bible ouverte”, the longest continually-shown programme in French television history, since inception presented by the ever-youthful Rabbi Josy Eisenberg. My mother-in-law, Emma Baroukh, who died aged 103 in 1998, watched Josy Eisenberg in her youth ( I exaggerate here – Eisenberg is in fact only 76 and Mémé Emma was aged 67 when the TV programme started in 1962); he still presents the weekly programme. I admit to being a compulsive viewer when in Paris.

My connection with the AIU is through my wife Paulette, an ex-pupil, and of course my late mother-in-law, Emma Baroukh née Benassein (1895-1998) who attended the Tunisian Girls’ School founded in 1882. My “recollections” come from them.

The AIU in Tunis insisted that the pupils spoke French. In many cases, the pupils were the only members of the family who possessed this language, as Judeo-Arabe was the lingua franca of the Jews. Young Emma was often summoned by the local French medic to act as translator for his patients. On one occasion the doctor instructed Emma to tell a patient with a gangrenous leg that the limb must be amputated. “Amputated” was not yet a word known to the child, but when the medic explained the term she was able, with obvious joy at this addition to her vocabulary but little comfort to the unfortunate patient, to convey the message.

On graduation from the AIU, Emma understood that she had now an obligation in turn to teach at the Alliance, but was excused as she had obtained a prestigious post working for the French colonial power. During the First World War, she was attached to the French Naval hospital at Sidi-Fath-Allah near Tunis, where she served in the Quartermaster Department, being responsible for food supplies to the French sailors hospitalized there, ultimately receiving an honour from the French government. Her boss was the Admiral Saliège. A fine man and doctor, he and his family adored the 19 year-old Jewish girl. He called her my Rebecca, after the heroine of Walter Scott’s novel Ivanhoe which he and Emma both liked, and gently mocked her insistence on eating her Kosher sandwiches apart from others in the officers’ mess.

I often wonder if this great family friendship influenced the Admiral’s cousin, Cardinal Jules-Gérard Saliège, Archbishop of Toulouse (February 24, 1870—November 5, 1956), one of the French Yad Vashem righteous gentiles, who gave so much support to Jews during the Vichy period, and to whom ex-President Chirac recently paid tribute in a speech recognizing his contribution.

The Holocaust saw the essential destruction of the Ashkenazi Jewish community of France. This community was replaced by the Mizrahim, Jews from the Maghreb, displaced from their Arab homelands. The immense success of this new community, providing leaders in French politics, the professions of law and medicine, business, journalism, science, academia – including Academicians and Nobellists – as well as the entertainment and media industries, is in no small measure due to the education received from the Alliance Israelite Universelle.

Col. Kemp speaks out

2010-10-13T15:36:00.007+01:00

Col.Richard Kemp is a one-time commander of the British Forces in Afghanistan, but perhaps better known for his testimony before the United Nations in the wake of Operation Cast Lead, ending with the statement that"based on my knowledge and experience, I can say this: during operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in the combat zones than any other army in the history of warfare".
Last night (12th October 2010) I was privileged to hear a presentation from this distinguished soldier. He revealed one or two facts of which I was not previously aware. Having been seconded to the Cabinet Office, Kemp was faced with developing strategies to counter a previously unknown terrorist tactic - the suicide bomber. When he called Mossad for help, they immediately sent over an agent to advise him, on the basis of which meeting he devised what is now the working strategy of UK's Joint Intelligence Committee. After the July 7, 2005 London bombings, the only two agencies to offer immediate assistance were the CIA and Mossad. (Note: This seeming close co-operation between the Intelligence Agencies of Israel and the UK lends credence to the otherwise implausible Daily Mail story that Britain was in fact informed by Mossad of the Dubai assassination of January 2010 and the use of fake British passports, in advance of the operation; Kemp was not asked about this.)
When asked why Israel was so often singled out for unjust condemnation, he said that anti-Semitism and fear of Islamism were probably two factors. This may seem to some as being what Basil Fawlty would call the "bleeding obvious", but I am not so sure. Although the EU's "working definition of anti-Semitism" conflates some anti-Israelism with anti-Semitism, I prefer the view of, I believe, the late US Ambassador to the United Nations Arthur J. Goldberg, who thought of anti-Semitism as a virus which continually adapted; originally being religious (Early Christianity), then racial (Nazi period) and more recently Nationalistic (anti-Israel). In this current phase there would be no contradiction, for example, in the seemingly relentless hostility of the UK to the State of Israel, and the more-or-less avoidance of anti-Semitism in British public life.

Listening to Col. Kemp speak, one has renewed faith in the inherent humanity of the Englishman, and a deeper understanding of the phrase "an officer and a gentleman".

Lies, Damned Lies, and Politicians

2010-10-10T19:29:00.007+01:00

The canard is attributed to the British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881): "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." Clearly, in increasing order of vileness. However, as a politician himself, Disraeli must surely have known that the words of politicians outclass all these types of lies.

Consider the following statement:
"Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided."

Undoubtedly the words of a far right Israeli politician? Lieberman perhaps? No.

Must be Bibi Netanyahu in his more aggressive mood? No.

In fact, these are the words of Presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama, on 4th June 2008, addressing an AIPAC audience. Of course, this was before he was elected, with a not unsurprisingly huge Jewish vote - 78% of Jewish voters actually believed what he told them!
Abraham Lincoln, an even more eminent statesman than either Disraeli or Obama, once said "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."

Honest Abe - I wouldn't bet on it.

Come next month with the mid-term United States elections, Obama is putting his money on being able to fool most of the people most of the time.

And he might just be right.

The Perils of Computer Language Recognition

2010-09-16T10:51:00.001+01:00

This hilarious video demonstrates the perils of voice recognition. And I have an Irish friend who has “trained” his computer to use voice recognition – undoubtedly a security asset as nobody else will be able to use his system.

But there are also dangers involved in simple language text translation, as the following illustrates.

As Emeritus Professor at the University of Paris, I occasionally lunch at the cafeteria there. Before going, I check the online menu. This particular Friday, when there is usually fish, the French language menu was out of order, but they directed users to the translated, English version. The fish option read “Net of Place”. Well, that sounds right. “Net” is certainly a fishy sort of term for a menu, redolent of a catch at sea; and “place” is certainly a flatfish. But wait a minute; surely the fish is spelt “plaice”; and whatever their faults, computers do NOT make spelling mistakes.

Intrigued, I set out for the restaurant, to check what exactly was on the menu. It turned out that the fish option was “filet de lieu”. Now, the French word “filet” means fillet or net; and the poor computer had chosen the wrong option. Similarly, “lieu” is French for “place” or the fish “coley”, similar to cod, but “fillet of coley” was really not to my taste.

So I departed, a wiser, if hungrier, man.

The dog doesn't bark - again

2010-09-05T11:41:00.004+01:00

The scene: Friday, 3rd September 2010. A peaceful procession in support of Palestinians on Al Quds Day in Quetta, Pakistan. Al-Quds Day is a yearly Shia event to demonstrate opposition to Israel's control of Jerusalem and show solidarity with Palestinian Muslims.

Suddenly....... mass slaughter of children, women and men - with (so far ) 65 dead.

Did the BBC report this on their news broadcasts - obsessively focussed on the Pakistan cricket scandal, even though the above event took place in Pakistan? No. No BBC broadcasts that I listened to included this "item". And of course, no report about the similar slaughter two days earlier in Lahore.

These were attacks by Sunni Muslims on Shia Muslims - and the three-figure death toll in the space of a couple of days represents only a tiny fraction of the ongoing slaughter.

In a previous blog(The dog that didn't bark) I commented on the significance of what the BBC chooses NOT to broadcast.

Why the reticence of the BBC regarding these events? Quite simply because it does not fit in with the Western world view, into which the BBC has totally bought, that all problems in the Middle East emanate from Arab hostility to Israel. This internecine killing is between Islamic factions whose hatred for one another far outweighs their love of the Palestinians.

So much for those who say that once we solve the "problem" of Israel all will be sunshine and light in that part of the world. The fact that this not the case may be categortized as an "opinion", a hypothesis not susceptible to proof in the near future, as no solution to the Israel-Palestine problem is going to happen in the near future.

But let us see what will happen in Iraq when the U.S. troops finally withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011. I would not like to be a Sunni Iraqi after that date.
________________________________________________________________________
For reports on the above events, see here, here and here.

That’s funny – you don’t look Chinese…

2010-08-31T20:06:00.015+01:00

Sweltering in the thirty-plus degree humidity of a Singapore “spring”, one can only marvel at how much this place resembles a 21st Century version of England – apart from the weather. Three-pin electric plugs, cars driving on the left, English street names and the ubiquitous English language – one starts to wonder what so many Chinese-looking people are doing here. But your Singaporeans are a fiercely independent lot – any attempt to use one of my few phrases of Mandarin “Ni-shi chingua ren?” (“Are you Chinese?”) is met by an instant riposte “Bu-shi; wo shi Singapor-ren!” (“ No, I’m a Singaporean”.)

And indeed they are a people apart. The cafés are bustling, full of an ethnic mixture of Taiwanese, Malays, Vietnamese, and Chinese – even Europeans. The air of high-rise prosperity is everywhere – hard to see traces of an economic crisis here.

But this ethnic mix is not reflected in the synagogues – at least not in the orthodox Magen Avoth Synagogue that I visited on Shabbat. Situated in – where else? – Waterloo Street, it’s a manageable walk from the Marina Bay–Chinatown area where I stayed. The community is organized by two rabbis– Lubavitcher , of course; Rabbis Rivni and Abergel are assisted by a cohort of Yeshiva Bochers, but the services are decidedly Sephardi. The Torah reading is à la Sephardi – from upright scrolls in a metallic cylinder – and does not get under way until an auction has been conducted to award the Aliyot, which procedure some may find distasteful. But this determinedly Sephardi minhag seemed very strange to my eyes, as the congregation was decidedly Ashkenazi. In fact, it brought to mind a variation on the old hoary joke: Western Jew visiting a synagogue in China is barred from entering by a Chinese-Jewish warden who tells him “Funny, you don’t look Jewish.” In fact, the congregation in Magen Avoth was so homogeneously European that I would expect a Chinese-looking visitor to be treated with curiosity.

Alas, even in this cosmopolitan environment the synagogue has to be guarded; although, despite its proximity to Israel-hating Malaysia, as well as Indonesia, Singapore maintains good relations with the Jewish state. Indeed Singapore’s military was created by Israel and modeled after the IDF, and cultural and economic ties are strong. Recently, a whole page of Singapore’s newspaper of record, the Straits Times, was devoted to a sympathetic article by Gordon Thomas (author of Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad) on the recent assassination of the Hamas chief Mahmoud al-Mahbouh; not something you are likely to find in an English paper. It is said that Singapore’s affinity with Israel is because it too is surrounded by potentially hostile states. Let us hope that for both countries this hostility will diminish and its prosperity increase.

Arisen from the Dead?

2010-08-11T11:17:00.003+01:00

I had a tremendous shock the other day. I had the TV news on - maybe my favourite station France 24, Aljazeera or some other, but was listening to it, not watching, while doing other kitchen chores. Well, wife was away, and I do have to eat occasionally..

It was interesting, an interview with the lawyer defending Guantanamo's youngest inmate, Toronto-born Omar Khadr. But, surprise surprise, the lawyer was George Galloway. I recognised the voice immediately; I am rather good at recognising accents. But not only the voice; the strident anti-Americanism, the tonality, everything. I had not realised that Galloway was a legal advocate, but as an ex-Parliamentarian he has had much experience in that area.

When I left my chores to actually look at the television, I saw that Galloway had put on a Latex face-mask, and adopted another identity, using the name Dennis Edney .

I subsequently found out that both Galloway and Edney - for indeed it was the latter defending Omar Khadr - hail from Dundee (presumably from the same street in Dundee - Professor Higgins?)

Or perhaps there is an army of Galloway clones, a la "The Boys from Brazil", ready to carry on the Galloway Standard?

What a prospect!

Dennis Edney

They killed Dr Woo for "being a Christian"

2010-08-10T18:00:00.003+01:00

Richard Cohen, a respected contributor to the Washington Post, and not always sympathetic to Israel, is nevertheless perplexed by an Economist magazine review of a forthcoming book on "one of contemporary Islam's most important thinkers, Sayyid Qutb" a founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. The reason?
Cohen refers to the " Economist's unforgivable silence on Sayyid Qutb's anti-Semitism"

This should not have puzzled the good Mr Cohen. The Economist only reflects a mind-set in the contemporary UK which glosses over anything in Islam or Islamic Fundamentalism which can be construed as being ideologically anti-Christian or anti-Semitic. Only today, David Willetts, defence correspondent of The Sun, headed his take on the recent murder of ten aid workers in Afghanistan, and specifically the British Dr Karen Woo, as follows: "Taliban sect killed Dr Karen 'for being Western".
In fact, the Taliban themselves stated that they killed Dr Karen Woo 'for being a Christian'.

Until the UK realises that the war with the Islamists is indeed a clash of civilisations, it is a battle that cannot be won.

"The Law is a ass"

2010-07-06T12:32:00.006+01:00

Following a Brighton judge's recent direction to a jury to acquit activists who caused £200,000 criminal damage to an arms factory (EDO MBM Technology) on the basis that they believed the components were intended for Israel, I feel more and more that this is how it must have been for the Jews in pre-war Germany. Criminal behaviour now has a sustainable defence - if it is directed against the Jewish state, or even if there is a reasonable belief that this is the case.

This is not far from justifying attacks on British Jews, based on the reasonable belief that they might just possibly be supporters of Israel. British law is based on precedent - and the Brighton judge (Judge George Bathurst-Norman, born in Palestine and fetched from retirement specifically to judge this case) has indeed set a precedent.

When I see the coverage of the Middle East in the British media, I have no doubt why this is so. A continuous montage of half-truths and downright lies, bias and hate spews at us from the TV screens daily - where Israel is concerned. If you think this is exaggerated, that is because one becomes inured to it - like the steady drip of a tap one no longer hears.
Fortunately, I occasionally get relief from this (uniquely British?) phenomenon by travelling to France. Take, for example, last night's discussion on France 24, the French TV news channel, about the Gaza flotilla and the violence on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara. The continuous backdrop to this discussion was a video of IDF soldiers getting beaten with metal rods and bars, as well as knives.

If there was any doubt in the viewers' minds, the pictures were captioned accurately. I do not recall any British TV station broadcasting such material, which throws a competely different light on this tragic episode to what we have been told in the UK.

Peace activist on board the MaviMarmara

But the Brighton judgement, if left unchallenged, marks a new low - even for Britain.

Why shout when a whisper can be heard?

2010-04-15T22:06:00.003+01:00

Having just returned from France to the UK, I continue to be amazed by the contrasting attitudes of the two countries towards Israel. This Thursday (15th April 2010) Shimon Peres inaugurated the Ben Gurion Promenade in a select area of Paris, in the presence of the Mayor Bertrand Delanoe. Can you imagine a similar event occuring in London? And afterwards President Sarkozy assured Peres that he maintains his efforts to free Gilad Shalit - whose portrait adorns more than one Paris Town Hall.

The French media never fail to have some positive little item about Israel, such an Israeli instructor teaching Parisiennes self-defence, or even the Meteo mentioning how good the weather is in Tel Aviv. My heart sinks when I hear an English station mention Israel, as it is invariably in a negative light.

Of course the French Jewish community benefits from a robust representative body, the CRIF (Conseil représentatif des institutions juives de France ), which never fails to protest loudly at overt anti-semitism or anti-Israelism, and an equally outspoken Israeli ambassador in the person of Daniel Shek; while in the UK the equivalent body (the Board of Deputies of British Jews) seems to have as its motto "Why shout when a whisper can be heard". The problem with this is that nowadays no whisper can be heard when the other side is shouting.

The result is that the UK leads Europe in anti-Israeli attitudes, such as the lamentable Universal Jurisdiction deployed against the entry of Israeli personalities, the officious labelling of Israeli produce, and now the latest outrage, the ban by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) against Israeli travel posters showing the Western wall, the holiest site in Judaism.

But this tide can be turned. The French anti-Semitic "comedian" Dieudonne - banned in France, of course - had decided last week to take his act to - where else - the UK. Loud protests lead to the cancellation of this event.

Sometimes it takes more than a whisper.

Durian -the smelliest fruit in the world

2010-03-06T04:12:00.002Z

DURIAN FRUIT

Imagine the worst stink from an over-flowing sewer, and then multiply that some. On my first visit to Bangkok many years ago, I had assumed that the city's sewerage systems were on the blink, when assailed by an overpowering, all-encompassing odour. That is the odour of Durian - a fruit considered highly delectable in Asia. I have often watched - from a safe distance - people enjoying the fruit in open-air Asian markets, but have never been able to get near enough to sample the taste myself, until recently, that is.

Needless to say, in disciplined Singapore Durian is banned from hotels and public places - much as cigarettes in the West. But apparently most of the smell comes from cutting into the hard casing in which the creamy, custardy fruit is enclosed. Durian sellers extract the fruit elsewhere, and keep it in enclosed airtight containers, which emit no smell perceptible to me.

Of course my first sampling was no doubt facilitated by a head cold induced by Singapore's unforgiving air-conditioning systems, probably a boon in this equatorial city, but nevertheless set at exaggeratedly low temperatures. The fortuitous juxtaposition of a cold reducing my sense of smell and a vendor of Durian pancakes in the near vicinity of my hotel proved an irresistible opportunity for what I hoped would be a life-changing experience.

Unfortunately I can only report that I found the fruit rather bland. So I can resignedly wait for my head-cold to clear up - but then I may not be able to get near the fruit.

Singapore, March 2010

Mossad – in from the cold?

2010-02-17T11:19:00.004Z

It’s a long time since an exploit by Israel’s secret service – Mossad – has hit the headlines. The assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud al Mabrouh on January 20 in a Dubai hotel has the aroma of Mossad about it, although of course the agency is remaining shtum. The usual Mossad features – forged passports, clean killing with no family or bystanders involved, quick in-and-out – are indeed redolent of that agency’s methods unlike , for example, the heavy-handed “bomb-the-lot” approach of Arab assassins.

Nevertheless, foreign commentators – and indeed the ultra-critical Israeli newspaper Ha’Aretz (Following alleged Dubai mess, the Mossad chief must go) - have been quick to seize on amateurish features of the coup. The British are particularly incensed that their passports have been used.

But do I detect the whiff of sour grapes and double standards here? Recall that the Americans have been endeavouring for ages to get Mr Bin Laden – dead or alive – and remember the pack of “assassination cards” featuring the Iraqi leaders on the US hit list.

An amazing real-life video of the “event” has been produced by the BBC here which would seem to make any future book, or film superfluous. Sorry, Freddie Forsythe.

,

Karsenty and the Mohammed Al Dura Affair

2010-01-28T16:59:00.016Z

Camera image

******************************************************

Some iconic images from the Al Dura Affair
Mali Monument	Al Dura Billboard

I attended an interesting presentation in the House of Commons yesterday (27 January 2010) by Philippe Karsenty on the Mohammed Al Dura Affair, a subject on which he has expended much energy since the original incident about a decade ago. Recall that the 12-year-old was apparently shot on 30th September 2000, while sheltering behind his father, as a result of exchanges of fire between Israelis and Palestinians during the Second Intifida.

This incident has become iconic in the Islamic world, with many states issuing postage stamps commemorating it on billboards, naming streets as well as erecting statues, etc. The incident was originally reported by Charles Enderlin, a respected French-Israeli reporter, who was not present at the scene but added the commentary on the basis of footage supplied by his Gazan cameraman, Talal Abu Rahma. It should be noted that Enderlin is a journalist for France 2, the French national TV station.

Karsenty’s exposure of the incident as a staged hoax led to his losing a case in a French court following Enderlin’s writ for libel on December 9, 2004, followed by a writ from France 2 on December 3, 2005. This decision was overturned on May 21, 2008, and an Appeal by France 2 to the French Supreme Court (Court de Cassation) is currently being heard. There is a detailed account of this controversy here, while Ha’aretz has a summary, and there is an excellent account by Camera.

All of this is, of course, well known. But what intrigued me is the seeming reluctance of many Israelis and Israel-sympathizers, and prominent Jews such as Frenchman Jacques Attali, to support Karsenty or pursue the perpetrators of such an obviously staged event. Some light was thrown on this reluctance by Karsenty himself. Given the weakening of US-Israel relations since Obama’s presidency, and the outright anti-Israel hostility of much of Europe, spearheaded by the UK, it seems futile to antagonize the one possible new ally of Sarkozy’s France, which has just awarded Enderlin the Legion d’Honneur.

Makes sense!

The Dog That Didn’t Bark

2010-01-10T10:03:00.003Z

In Conan Doyle's story "Silver Blaze", Sherlock Holmes has this exchange at the crime scene with Gregory, the Scotland Yard inspector:

Gregory : "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."
Holmes: "That was the curious incident."

On Friday 8th January, there occurred riots between Palestinians, the British-led Viva Palestina group, and the Egyptian police at the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza. One Egyptian was killed, with several others injured. Ahmed Abul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, said in remarks published on Saturday, that members of Viva Palestina, the last convoy allowed through, had "committed hostile acts, even criminal ones" on Egyptian soil. Following this incident, the leader of the Viva Palestina group, British MP George Galloway, was deported from Egypt.

This episode understandably made headlines on most foreign and some British-based news channels. (See Aljazeera's take.) That is, on most TV channels - with the glaring exception of the BBC – for whom it was largely a non-story. One would have thought that the involvement of a British MP in foreign riots, followed by deportation, would have been headlined non-stop throughout several days.

Imagine – if you will – had the riots occurred at one of the Israeli crossing points, involving death and injury, and “peaceful” humanitarian aid workers as well as a British MP…. Questions would have been asked in Parliament, protest marches in the streets, “understandably aggrieved British youth” would have explained that this is the sort of behaviour which leads to suicide bombers, etc. etc. It is not beyond possibility that the United Nations General Assembly would have met.

So the BBC obsession is not with the Middle East – it is with Israel.

The fact that the dog did not bark, now that was the curious incident.

Intelligent profiling

2010-01-04T10:52:00.000Z

The abysmal failure of US security to prevent a putative suicide bomber from boarding Northwest Airlines international flight 253 on December 25, 2009, highlights the need for intelligent profiling on passenger flights. Note I said "intelligent profiling "; paying particular attention to young males with Islamic-sounding names is not, and never has been, sufficient. The silliest comment I heard in this respect was on today's Radio 4 Today programme, when one contributor stated that particular attention should be paid to holders of Iraqi and Afghanistan passports. These are precisely the passport holders who have never been, and will never be, airline bombers. On the other hand, recall the Irish girl, pregnant by her Palestinian lover, who after profiling, that is, background analysis, was prevented from boarding an El Al plane while carrying both her unborn child and the bomb put in her luggage by her lover.

Once after a scientific visit to the Haifa Technion Chemistry Department, where I was collaborating with a colleague who was actually a physicist, I was stopped by a young female security officer. Officer:"What were you doing in Israel?"Me: "Visiting the Chemistry Department of the Technion."Officer: "Prove it."As it so happens I had to hand a preprint of a paper we had just produced on the subject of SU(2) - a technical subject in mathematical physics. I proudly produced the same.Officer: "SU(2) - that's theoetical physics, NOT chemistry!"
At this point I was so flabbergasted that I had to admit that it was a fair cop, guv. Further explanations were necessary. (The girl happened to be an ex-student of my old professor, the celebrated Israeli physicist, Yuval Ne'eman.)

Now that is what I call "intelligent profiling".

The Gaza Syndrome

2009-07-04T22:12:00.004+01:00

Geert Wilders, the controversial Dutch politician, in a recent address to the Dutch parliament, claimed that Europe was falling victim to the Stockholm Syndrome, where a grateful captive identifies with the captors. He illustrated this by the case of a left-wing Dutch journalist, Joanie de Rijke, who in November 2008 was abducted by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. She was held captive, raped repeatedly, and released after six days for a ransom of 100,000 euros. After her ordeal, she acknowledged that her captors “did horrible things to me,” but added in several media interviews “They also respected me,” and emphasized “They are not monsters.” The efforts made by European leftist elites to “understand” Islamists – in spite of atrocities committed in cities from London to Madrid, seems to Wilders to be symptomatic of a sort of pan-national Stockholm Syndrome. Effectively, the Islamists can do no wrong; this is their culture, this is how they are.

Much as a paedophile grooms his victim, so have many media in Europe groomed their audiences towards a type of inverse phenomenon, a notable example being the BBC during the recent Gaza campaign, in which the Israelis can do no right. We might call this the Gaza Syndrome. For example, we read during that campaign that the Israelis were allowing only “minimal” amounts of aid into Gaza, instead of wondering why an army should be supplying its enemy during a war. And complaints about injured Gazans (even combatants) having to queue at the border to be allowed to enter Israel for hospital treatment; instead of wonderment that an enemy power was putting its medical facilities at the disposal of its adversaries.

The recent Amnesty Report on Gaza – equating the IDF actions in defence of its citizens with the Hamas aggression - was only too predictable. Now we will shortly have a further opportunity to see the Gaza Syndrome in action with the forthcoming Goldstone report, which Alan Dershowitz has sceptically described as a Kangaroo Investigation.

And so it goes on.

Lessons from Japan and Costa Rica

2009-06-16T15:18:00.003+01:00

What connects Japan and Costa Rica? Apart from the fact that Japan has been one of the most successful economies in the World, and that of Costa Rica one of the most successful in Latin America?

Here is a clue: excerpts from the Constitutions of these two countries:

Constitution of Japan.
ARTICLE 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

Constitution of Costa Rica
ARTICLE 12. The Army as a permanent institution is abolished. There shall be the necessary police forces for surveillance and the preservation of the public order.
Military forces may only be organized under a continental agreement or for the national defense; in either case, they shall always be subordinate to the civil power: they may not deliberate or make statements or representations individually or collectively.

So -these two successful states are essentially demilitarized. Now let us turn to Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt,who will take over the EU presidency in July. This representative of what is arguably one of the most anti-Semitic* and anti-Israel states in the EU, in a predictably hostile reaction to Netanyahu's proposal for a demilitarized Palestinian state [Bar-Ilan speech, 14 June 2009] said "The fact that he uttered the word state is a small step forward," but added "whether what he mentioned can be defined as a state is a subject of some debate."

Well, Mr. Bildt, do you have doubts that Japan and Costa Rica are "states"?

If not, then why does the absence of an army destroy the legitimacy of a putative Palestinian state in your eyes?

_________________________________________________________
*Zvi Mazel, who served in Sweden as Israel's ambassador in 2004, told a Swedish newspaper that "Sweden is among the most severely anti-Semitic places" with "daily agitations in the media to kill Jews."

A Modest Proposal….

2009-05-30T20:00:00.004+01:00

with Apologies to Jonathan Swift

Some 280 years ago, the Irish satirist Jonathan Swift offered what he termed a modest proposal for the alleviation of the plight of the poor of Ireland ¹. Noting that the children of these impoverished classes were an embarrassment due to their number, taking up both space and consuming food, he proposed that the parents should simply eat their children.

Having returned to their ancestral historic homelands of Judea and Samaria after 2000 years, the Jews have once again settled the land, creating fertile soil where there was wilderness, and towns where there was empty desert.

However U.S. Secretary of State Clinton has demanded that these settlements stop “natural growth”.

Clearly as far as she is concerned, the children of the settlers are, in Swift’s terms, a burden to the country – in this case the “country” presumably being the United States. Arresting natural growth seems a difficult feat to achieve, but perhaps not impossible, if one follows Dean Swift’s advice. Why is what superficially appears a drastic proposal necessary? Perhaps the Jews of these areas should cease to procreate? But as Tacitus, the Roman historian writing about the Jews of Judea some 1900 years ago, noted: “as a nation, they are singularly prone to lust”, such a proposal would seem unlikely to be greeted with universal approbation. And for the orthodox settlers, birth control and universal abortion would also appear to be unacceptable.

So we are forced to return to the good Dean’s modest proposal. However there is a problem here too. Following the strictures of Leviticus, while children are clearly animals, and although one may be uncertain as to whether or not they “chew the cud”, I fear that in spite of respectable medieval Christian sources to the contrary, they rarely if ever appear to have cloven hooves. So, with regret, we must abandon the good dean’s undoubtedly well-intentioned helpful suggestion.

Thus we can understand that, notwithstanding Bibi’s wish to acquiesce to Obama and Clinton’s every whim, this is one point on which he must, albeit regretfully, demur.

___________________________________________________________________
¹ A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland
from being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and
For Making Them Beneficial to The Public. By Jonathan Swift (1729)

Our magnificent Boys in Blue….

2009-04-05T12:29:00.003+01:00

At last the British Bobby has regained his resolve. Confronted on April 1st by a crowd of G20 protesters, many of whom being desperate pensioners – but some as young as 75 – the British Bobby made up for previous shortcomings. Recall that during the London Islamic riots – er, sorry, peaceful protests about Gaza - of 10th January in Kensington, a cowering phalanx of Boys in Blue retreated before violent Muslim hooligans – er, sorry, justifiably Enraged British Youth – and indeed suffered injuries. Boys in Blue: 3 down. And they watched discretely from the sidelines while a respected member of the British Respect Party urged the mob to trash shops in the High Street – which of course the mob proceeded dutifully to do, without let or hindrance.

But our Guardians of the Peace really did their duty on April 1st. As the Guarniad reported,
“at least 10 protesters sitting down in the street close to the Bank of England were left with bloody head wounds after being charged by officers with batons at around 4.30pm. One woman, said to be an Italian student, was carried off unconscious.” Tally so far for our brave Caribinieri? Blue casualties:0. Red casualties:10. And I am not counting the subsequent toll; “Injured demonstrators with bleeding heads and necks were ushered through the crowd while others handed out milk so that people could wash the pepper spray from their eyes and mouths.”

How’s that for “proportionality”? My mathematician friends tell me that this gives a ratio of – infinity in favour of the Blues! Israel–so-called-Defense Forces, eat your hearts out!

Let this be a warning to future Hunt protesters, unemployed marchers, bankrupt pensioners, indeed any peaceful protest.

But somehow I don’t think our Enraged British Youth have anything to worry about.

It’s all the fault of the physicists..

2009-04-02T11:02:00.003+01:00

About 50 years ago, when I was a fresh graduate student, I wrote to the eminent nuclear physicist Amasa S. Bishop , who worked in fusion research, for advice on embarking on a career in nuclear fusion. He told me not to bother “The solution is not for your lifetime”.

Maybe he was right. When he died in 1997, fusion research was in progress, but still as far as ever from accomplishing the holy grail of getting more energy out of controlled fusion than one put in. In the year of his death, the Joint European Torus (JET) produced 16MW output equivalent to 65% of input power for half a second. Recent reports about the ITER
Reactor[1] are more hopeful. It now appears that a working reactor may be on line in 2018.

What has this got to do with the “Jewish Question”?

The reason why I posed my question as a starry-eyed student to Bishop so many years ago was that we had just witnessed the Arab-Israeli wars of 1948 and 1956. And even then it was clear to me that if the world had the limitless clean energy promised by fusion power, the trump card for Arab blackmail of the West – oil – would disappear, leaving room for an equitable solution to what subsequently proved to be an ongoing crisis.

To be fair to the physicists, just like space exploration, this is an engineering problem. The physics of fusion is well-established, just as the maths for space travel was solved by Isaac Newton over 300 years ago. So had the United States been as far-sighted as I all these years ago, and put as much effort into the fusion problem as they subsequently did into Space Research, they would have avoided all the problems of the Middle East which have caused so much bloodshed and trauma, not least to the Americans.

__________________________________________

[1] ITER was an acronym of International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, but political correctness concerning the negative connotations of the word "thermonuclear" led officials to change the official provenance of the name, attributing it instead to the Latin word for "the way".

Bad News from France (??)

2009-03-16T10:10:00.004Z

One of the hazards of the Electronic Age is the easy propagation of viruses – and more insidiously – of hoaxes. The latter art form has become so prevalent that, as the virus disables your computer, so the hoax email disables one’s ability to trust the content of anything on the web, without undergoing a stringent and time-consuming confirmation procedure. Perhaps this latter is not without its benefits, as of course as far as the print media are concerned one has long since learned not to accept anything on trust.

One hoax-virus which circulates incessantly, seemingly from the United States, is entitled “Bad news from France” (sometimes adding “Real Bad News?”)

This HOAX has been circulating since at least 2002 - when there were serious (but not anti-Jewish) riots in France, but probably before that, since some of the events it details date from much earlier. I have been receiving it for some time and have responded on several occasions. Usually a boycott of French goods is proposed .

The French Bad News Hoax was reported as "current news" by Arutz Sheva in 2005 but when their reporter asked a French Jewish community representative about the accuracy of such "reports" they write

Manek Weintraub, a leader in the Representative Council of the Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) told the British website TotallyJewish.com, "So far nothing has happened. There was a Molotov cocktail that seems to have been hurled at a small synagogue but nobody really knows about it. It [the riots] will concern the public authorities but Jews are largely absent from the story, which is welcome."

Several attacks worldwide - including France- were reported against Jewish targets in 2002 (this year appears to be a peak for such incidents when some events apparently related to those of the hoax email may have happened) reflecting events in the Middle East and largely instigated by Muslims: the following events appear verbatim in a 2002 Blog

In Lyon, a car was rammed into a synagogue and set on fire.
In Montpellier, the Jewish religious center was firebombed
Jewish sports club in Toulouse attacked
In Bondy, 15 men beat up members of a Jewish football team
A gunman opened fire on a kosher butcher's shop (and, of course, the butcher) in Toulouse, France.
A Jewish school was broken into and vandalized in Sarcelles, France.

and so date from at least pre-2002.

But how far do you go back? During World War II there were of course much worse events to report - but this hoax purports to report current events. If you add all the anti-Semitic attacks in any one country over a long enough period you would come up with a horrific catalogue - but France has been extremely good in recent times both at living up to its WWII past, and also for its robust actions against Islamic extremists - unlike, say, the UK or Scandinavian countries.

Arguably one of the most anti-Semitic states in the West today, on a numerical basis, is the United States. Universities all over the US are centres of Jew-baiting and anti-Zionist activity. Charges against Jews are made by "academics" (Walt, Mearsheimer) , even an ex-president (Carter), culminating with the recent near-appointment of Charles Freeman to the Obama administration. Nobody of Jewish origin has ever been or ever could be head of State in the US, unlike France where President Sarkozy loudly proclaimed his Jewish origins before his election – and France has already had one fully-Jewish President (Alexandre Millerand) and several Jewish Prime Ministers. In the United States, for example, Madeleine Albright was confirmed as the 64th Secretary of State, but had concealed the fact that she was Jewish in order to obtain this office (although as a historian she should have known her origins and had stayed with her sister – an Orthodox Jew).

However, as far as I can ascertain, nobody is circulating “Bad news from the U.S.” nor advocating a boycott of American goods.

Diplomats and fonctionnaires

2009-02-11T16:17:00.002Z

Apparently Rowan Laxton, a senior diplomat at the Foreign Office, has just been arrested for inciting anti-religious hatred. He is alleged to have screamed in a gym

‘F**king Israelis, f**king Jews’. It is alleged he also said Israeli soldiers should be ‘wiped off the face of the earth’. His rant reportedly continued even after he was approached by other gym users.

For more details see Melanie Phillips’ blog.

But one wonders why this man has not yet been sacked from his government job. Civil servants are supposed not to express even rather mild political or other opinions, as their job traditionally requires complete neutrality.

About a year ago, the French media reported that the Sub-Prefect of Saintes (Charente-Maritime) , a certain Monsieur Bruno Guigue, was dismissed from office by the French Minister of the Interior, Michèle Alliot-Marie. His offence? He “criticized, without subtlety, the US and Israel” in an internet publication destined for French-speaking Muslims, a diatribe characterized as being “violently anti-Israeli”.

This is of course not as vile as the anti-Semitic rant of Mr Laxton.

Why is our government so slow to react against civil servants who are racists or, more specifically, anti-Semites? What would the reaction have been had the rant been anti-Islamic?

BBC bias - and BBC DEC games

2009-01-25T10:05:00.000Z

The BBC is arguably the most anti-Israel TV station currently broadcasting on general-access channels to the UK public. Even including Al Jazeera's English channel - this seems still to hold. But it is more than a perception; why has the BBC spent over £200,000 for almost five years to suppress the Balen Report, commissioned by the BBC, to look into anti-Israel bias by the corporation?

The recent (tentative) decision by the BBC not to broadcast the DEC (Disasters and Emergency Committee) appeal for humanitarian aid to Gaza is a transparent attempt to remove this accusation. However, the BBC is in fact encouraging listeners to contribute, indicating how to find the DEC web site on, for example, BBC’s Broadcasting House (Radio 4, today, 9 am). If you call the BBC's complaint line (03700 100 222) today (25 January 2009) you will find that there is a dedicated option - option number One - for complaints against this decision. There is no dedicated option for those applauding it.

But in fact, there is no reason not to support humanitarian aid to the civilians of Gaza. Currently Israel is the greatest contributor, with a continuous convoy of humanitarian aid trucks crossing into Gaza through the Israeli check points, even during the conflict. And on the 18th of January a forward emergency treatment centre was opened at the Erez crossing into Gaza to enable Israeli doctors to continue to treat wounded Gazan civilians, much as they had done at the Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon during the campaign.

This is yet another example of the BBC playing the emotions of the British public - arousing feeling that due to "pressure" they would even be prevented for appealing for help for wounded Palestinian babies. And, of course, demonstrating how "impartial" they really are.

Result? A massive upswell in anti-Israeli feeling in a public already well-indoctrinated by the BBC's continuous onslaught, accompanied by a DEC appeal replete with all the fake and/or genuine pictures of Gazan war victims, so lovingly collected by that humanitarian organization, Hamas.

Boycott – Shmoycott

2009-01-15T16:50:00.000Z

For some years there have been anti-French emails circulating from the United States, some even advocating a boycott of French products. For reasons unknown to me, certain circles in the US wish to proclaim France as somehow one of the most anti-Semitic states in Europe, while the contrary is the case. Here are some facts:

[1] France has had several Prime Ministers and Presidents who were Jewish or of Jewish extraction; the United States has never had a Jewish President, and as far as I can tell will never have one in my lifetime. Even the Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, an international scholar on Europe, had to pretend that she never knew that she was Jewish and feigned ignorance of her own family connections - in order to attain high office. President Sarkozy, on the other hand, made a great play of his Jewish origins before the election – and was elected President anyway.

[2] France is the only country in Europe (even in the world outside Israel?) which has Town Halls emblazoned (to this very moment) with "Liberez Gilad Shalit" posters (see my blog http://allan-kingsolomonsblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/presidents-and-prisoners.html )

[3] Has there ever been the equivalent of the Rashi mail stamp, commemorating 900 years of the birth of the great Jewish scholar, in the United States - or anywhere else outside Israel? This was the standard Airmail stamp in France some years ago.

[4] Recently when a minor French functionary published an anti-Israeli article in a paper, the current French Minister of the Interior instantly dismissed him. Where else in Europe would that happen? Or the United States?

[5] France is home to the largest Jewish population in Europe, third largest in the world after Israel and the US. French Jews represent that country’s cultural, political and intellectual elite. Jewish artists, actors, singers, comedians, tele-pundits play very much the same pre-eminent role in France as they do in the US.

BUT

France is also home to the largest Muslim population of Europe. The younger members of this group have played a disproportionate role in the rise of anti-Semitism in France since 2005
( see http://allan-kingsolomonsblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/coming-to-suburb-near-you.html )

The nation of France has suffered from this element – do not blame the French themselves, as no other government has been more robust in its fight against anti-Semitism, and I include in this assessment even Jacques Chirac, who was no lover of Israel.

So: Continue to enjoy your French wine – and, if you insist on Kosher wine, the majority of Kosher wine types come from France! And don’t forget that pâté de foie gras was invented by French Jews too!

Coming to a suburb near you

2009-01-10T21:15:00.000Z

Watching the Muslim Riot taking place in Kensington this evening, I was struck by a sense of déjà vu. I recalled the riots of 2005 in France, ultimately affecting 274 towns, when “disaffected youths” took to the streets. These young Muslims of the euphemistically-termed banlieues sensibles – nearly all French born – were expressing their disapproval of the French system of governance, which had largely fed and clothed them, but had in many cases failed to supply them with a lucrative not-too-taxing job, such as enjoyed by the well-heeled fonctionaires from the leafier suburbs. Result? 8,973 vehicles burned, 126 police and fire-fighters injured and more than €200 million of damage caused. The three policemen injured this evening and the shattered shops in the High Street are only a modest effort – but it’s a start. At least this was – to quote the BBC – “ largely a peaceful demonstration”. And only after SKY had broadcast the extent of the casualties was our esteemed Corporation prepared to admit to some injuries among the police, and some damage to property.

Of course it is perfectly understandable – especially to our more liberal colleagues – that “passions should be enflamed” by current events in Gaza; just as they were by disrespectful cartoons of the Prophet, or by the war in Iraq – or by any one of a hundred events happening anywhere in the world.

This is the real Globalization menace; you may live in the suburbs of London, but you are still as vulnerable as the Parisian, or the Hindu in Mumbai.

Gaza Campaign - Tenth Day

2009-01-06T18:39:00.000Z

I suppose many have been following the Gaza campaign on our TV and radio Channels. By and large, there is the usual amount of anti-Israeli bias - especially from the BBC. The latter insists on misquoting - or not fully quoting, or quoting out of context - various eminent figures, thus painting Israel in a worse light than they intended. For example, President Sarkozy of France called the Hamas actions "irresponsible and unpardonable" as broadcast by French TV and radio - this was not relayed by the BBC. Today mortars were fired from UN schools where Gazans were hiding; this is of course a War Crime on the part of Hamas. The Israeli response was, unfortunately, lethal - but fully justified under international law. However, the use of human shields by Hamas is proving a difficult strategy to overcome. It is a win-win strategy for Hamas - as one of their leaders boasted to a German Radio station:

"When we store our weapons under a school, if they don't find them - we win.
And if they find them and bomb them - we also win."

And the Gazans suffer from it, as this report from April 2008 noted

“Residents of a Gaza town complained this week after Hamas forces constructing a
weapons storage facility under the local schoolhouse severed a water main.”

Last year the IDF succeeded in video-ing mortars being fired from one of the UN Gaza schools bombed this year. So no surprises there.

One of the incredible sights in our media today was the Mad Doctor Madz Gilbert ranting like a lunatic in the Shifa Hospital. It turn out that he really is a crazed Hamas supporter -thanks to Melanie Philips for researching this.

How can the media portray such a lunatic as a humanitarian medic?

Very easy - if you are the BBC.

Presidents and Prisoners

2008-11-26T13:38:00.000Z

It has been noticed among many Jewish residents of the UK that the visit of Israeli President Shimon Peres passed unreported in most of the media. This came as no surprise to any observer of the UK media's current attitude to Israel. Anything even vaguely negative about the Jewish state is siezed upon with alacrity; while the many positive achievements are consigned to the Trash file.

The surprise is that Peres was invited at all. Unlike France, whose President's first official visitor was the Israeli head of state, Britain now seems to be the repository of all the worst representatives of self-hating Jews, anti-Semites, anti-Zionists that Europe has to offer. In France, a functionary writing an anti-Israeli diatribe can expect (and one got) instant dismissal. Boycotts of Israel spring up from every quarter of British life; in Paris my local market proudly displays, as best quality, Israeli produce.

No wonder that even British TV drama portrays the Israelis as thugs; this caters to the Spirit of the Times as fostered by the BBC and, unlike their news broadcasts, the defence that « After all, this is only fiction, it's not meant to be true » works better – although often accurately applicable to the news too.

On passing our Paris Town Hall I was gratified to see a giant poster of Gilad Shalit (« Liberez Gilad Shalit » see picture) which will surely stay there until his liberation. And why not? This only replaces that of the Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt who, on her release, urged freedom for the Israeli.

It would be hard to imagine any town hall throughout England, and even less, Scotland or Wales, emulating such a gesture.

Rev Leslie Hardman 1913 - 2008

2008-10-16T12:39:00.000+01:00

The Rev.Leslie Hardman passed away on 7th October 2008, aged 95. He was a truly outstanding personality of Anglo-Jewry (One of the many obituarites is that of Times Online).

He affected the canonicals of the typical Anglican cleric, dog collar and all. In fact,
when he visited Watford Synagogue for an Inauguration of a new Rabbi some years ago, I mistook him for one of the visiting ministers from our local churches. I carefully explained to him how to follow the Jewish hymnal, reading from the "back page " and from right to left. He listened to me with great courtesy, and when I had finished, showed me a similar Inauguration Programme - for the late Rabbi Jacobovitz, at which Hardman himself had been the officiating Rabbi!

Some idea of the man's humanity was evidenced by the 2007 BBC television film "The Relief of Belsen", in which his role was played by an actor. Hardman's participation in the release of the camp was a determining factor in his life thereafter.

Israeli Films 4: Waltz with Bashir

2008-09-21T11:18:00.000+01:00

One of the many innovations that the excellent Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, has recently introduced is a series of periods when the Paris Cinemas offer reduced seat prices to everyone.
Perhaps not as important as his introduction of Velib - an almost free bicycle service which covers all of Paris, there are bicycle racks every 300 metres – and free wireless (Paris wifi) connections in parks and libraries, the cinema initiative has resulted in increased attendance at the large number of Paris cinemas, where already the public must be one of the most film aware in the world.

Taking advantage of the Mayor’s cheap cinema offer, I recently saw the Israeli animated film “Waltz with Bashir” (Golden Palm, Cannes Film Festival 2008) and was duly impressed by the healthy state of the Israeli Film industry, as this was only one of a series of award-winning films I have recently seen from that country (see my blogs tagged Israeli Films). This film deals with the psychological trauma induced in soldiers by war, specifically here in Israeli soldiers, including the Director Ari Folman, who witnessed, and here documents, the atrocity of the Phalangist massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatilla camps in 1982. Sensitively portrayed, the film nevertheless inevitably contains scenes of violence (and also of unrelated sex – de rigeur in Israeli films) which makes it suitable only for adult audiences. A novelty is that the voice-overs are of the actual personages portrayed, adding authenticity to what might otherwise be considered as only a cartoon film.

A film not to be missed, independently of one’s political view of the Middle East, adding ammunition to those voices who claim that war corrupts all who are touched by it.

Tacitus and the Jews

2008-07-16T15:50:00.000+01:00

The work Histories by the Roman historian Tacitus (Publius Cornelius Tacitus , ca. 56 – ca. 117) gives an invaluable insight into a period – especially Volume V - which includes the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem in 70 CE , thus ending the Great Jewish Revolt.

Tacitus himself did not much fancy the Jews, nor their leader Moyses (sic) who “gave them a novel form of worship, opposed to all that is practiced by other men.“ He thought the Jews rather lazy: “We are told that the rest of the seventh day was adopted, because this day brought with it a termination of their toils; after a while the charm of indolence beguiled them into giving up the seventh year also to inaction.“

Tacitus found their habits vaguely disgusting: “They sit apart at meals, they sleep apart, and though, as a nation, they are singularly prone to lust, they abstain from intercourse with foreign women" and finds it strange that "It is a crime among them to kill any newly-born infant." He accurately describes details of their worship, and of the Oneness of God.

Tacitus delineates the Jewish kingdom: "Eastward the country is bounded by Arabia; to the south lies Egypt; on the west are Phoenicia and the Mediterranean. Northward it commands an extensive prospect over Syria. The inhabitants are healthy and able to bear fatigue. Rain is uncommon, but the soil is fertile."

As for their capital "They have also towns. Jerusalem is the capital".

While Rome pursued her subjugation of all neighbouring peoples, "Our indignation was heightened by the circumstance that the Jews alone had not submitted."

Tacitus then goes on to describe the siege and ultimate conquest of Jerusalem.

"I have heard that the total number of the besieged, of every age and both sexes, amounted to six hundred thousand. All who were able bore arms, and a number, more than proportionate to the population, had the courage to do so. Men and women showed equal resolution, and life seemed more terrible than death, if they were to be forced to leave their country. Such was this city and nation."

So there you have it from an unsympathetic observer of almost 2000 years ago. Men and women showed equal resolution, and life seemed more terrible than death, if they were to be forced to leave their country. Such was this city and nation.

Can you read this without crying for the Israel of today, where the people may still have the strength of their forebears, but whose leaders are not worthy of the country they do not wish to defend?

Modesty

2008-07-16T14:11:00.000+01:00

Listening to the BBC Radio 4 discussion on "Boasting" today, my mind flew back over 50 years to my meeting with the most modest person I ever knew.

As a student in Trinity College Dublin, I had just participated in an open debate about Music and its influence, when a middle-aged tramp - who I had assumed had come into the meeting to escape the cold, came up to me and said how much he agreed with my eulogy for music. He wore a ragged overcoat which had seen better days, was unshaven, looked fairly unsavoury. He said we should go to some concert as we obviously shared the same tastes. I thought to myself, How on earth could he afford to go to a concert? As if sensing my thought, he said, “Well, Radio Eireann (the Irish national broadcasting corporation) gives these free concerts, and I happen to have a couple of tickets”. I agreed against my better judgment, and so found myself sitting next to him while the rather excellent Radio Eireann Symphony Orchestra played a beautifully evocative orchestral piece entitled “Sunshine and Shadow”, conducted – I think – by Brian Boydell, the eminent Irish composer and musicologist.

At the conclusion of the piece, the conductor turned to face the audience, and said that tonight we were honoured to be in the presence of the composer, Frederick May, whom he asked to stand. At this point, my tramp friend sheepishly stood up – for Frederick May he was indeed - to rapturous applause. This was his last piece for which a date was attributed– and he went on to live another thirty years, haunted by the Irish demon alcohol.

I never saw him again.

Frederick May 1911-1985

London's best-kept secret...

2008-07-02T19:44:00.000+01:00

Last Sunday (29 June 2008) I participated with 45,000 others in London's "Salute to Israel" rally. As our coaches left Watford, bedecked with Israeli flags and with the passengers wearing our Salute T-shirts, we were cheered on our way by onlookers and church goers, giving us thumbs-up signs. In London we joined the march to Trafalgar Square with thousands of others and numerous floats, taking a route lined with cheering onlookers. The Square itself was a sea of waving Israeli flags and Union Jacks, and we enjoyed an afternoon of entertainment ansd speeches. Rarely have I experienced such an outpouring of exuberance and affection, from Jew and Christian, white and black, young and old. The overwhelming love for the brave Jewish state filled the air like an exotic perfume.

And did the BBC report it? Nothing. There was not a whisper on BBC radio or television. Silence. Talkative as a dead parrot. Why? Because what happened in Trafalgar Square that sunny Sunday in June did not fit the agenda of loathing for the Jewish state which has been relentlessly fostered by the BBC. Not worth reporting. Wait until some more murderous mayhem arrives in that region.

And they did not have long to wait. As the lethal juggernaut ploughed through the innocents of the Holy City just two days later, the BBC headlined the event "Israel bulldozer driver shot dead", thus once again maliciously confusing the perpetrator with the victim.

Now that was something worth reporting.

Israeli Films 3: My Father My Lord (Hofshat Kaits)

2008-05-04T10:33:00.000+01:00

The Akedah, or binding and near-sacrifice of his son Isaac by Abraham, is an essential ingredient of the Judeo-Christian narrative. ( It is also celebrated in Islam by a festival, Eid al-Adha , with Ishmael taking on the role of Isaac.) The tale of a father whose love of God exceeded that of his son has always proved troublesome for Jewish mothers, and David Volach’s film exploits this feeling to the full. Set in an ultra-orthodox household, whose father Rabbi Abraham (played movingly by Moshe Dayan’s son Assi) spends his days steeped in the study of Torah, their one annual holiday is a day-trip to the Dead Sea with wife Esther (Sharon Hacohen-Bar) and only son Menahem (Elan Griff) , which ultimately proves to be tragic. This tragedy, with which the mother cannot come to terms, gives this beautiful film an emotional climax, with the implied rejection of her husband’s values.

This film is another triumph for the Israeli cinema, which is proving to be internationally competitive and world-class in every respect.

Not to be missed; suitable for all ages.

After writing this review, I came across the following more comprehensive Variety review, which I recommend as the writer drew the same analogy as myself!

Israeli Films 2: The disengagement of Gitai

2008-04-16T19:11:00.000+01:00

The term “left-wing” in Israeli politics refers not to those who wish to see a more equitable distribution of the nation’s wealth, but rather to those who would abandon all the cherished dreams of Jewish nationalism in order to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians. In this sense the celebrated Israeli film director Amos Gitai can truly be described as a “left-wing” activist. Or at least until now. His latest film “Disengagement” , just released in France to critical acclaim, tells the story of Israel’s forced expulsion of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip in August 2005 – in an attempt (subsequently proved futile) to provide a self-governing peaceful democratic enclave for the Palestinians. The story is told through the eyes of the European Ana (Juliet Binoche) and her step-brother Uli (Liron Levo) , an Israeli officer, whose paths cross a second time in Gaza, where Ana seeks to be reunited with the Israeli daughter she abandoned as a child. The film was introduced in person by Gitai at a cinema in St-Germain-des-Prés near my Paris home. He gave a moving account (in accented French) of how his son, an Israeli soldier as Gitai himself had been, persuaded him that there were many sides to the Israeli story.
The film is only partially successful in so far as the actual disengagement, which I witnessed in real time on TV in a hotel room on top of China’s Yellow Mountain, was far more dramatic. No-one can ever forget the scenes of the Israeli policewoman embracing the settler woman – both flooding tears, the gentle restrained force of the policemen as they evicted the men with as much respect and dignity as the event could allow. For me personally, Gitai’s film did not succeed in reproducing the emotion of the actual event, which had left me unashamedly in tears to the bemusement of the Chinese woman who had come to service my room.

With international stars such as Binoche – who claims to have been affected by her portrayal in the withdrawal, and Jeanne Moreau, the film cannot fail. And if it marks a return of Gitai to objectivity – it is a welcome landmark.

Islam and Free Speech

2008-03-28T15:44:00.000Z

Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician and leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), has just-released a film called "Fitna" which, he says , is intended to make clear the dangers contained in the Qur'an and Islam.

There used to be a maxim in Common Law "The greater the truth the greater the libel".
Although this particular guideline is outdated, there is a sense in which the Muslim reaction to perceived slurs against Islam illustrates this dictum. Common sense would indicate that not all sections of society have the same "pain threshold" regarding what they would term as insult; the Jews, in particular, have, quite understandably, been sensitive regarding what they perceive as anti-Semitic rhetoric. And it is only reasonable that in a heterogeneous society such sensitivity should be taken into account.

In spite of the outdated legal maxim referred to above, I would consider that the truth is, indeed, an appropriate yardstick with which to measure slights and insults. Thus the sensitivity exhibited by Jews towards Holocaust denial is not, as some Muslims claim, because the Shoah is one of their Holy Cows; but rather because, irrespective of its horror and magnitude, it is a historic event whose veracity is undeniable.

It is a sad fact that the majority of Muslims, who are far from the extremists portrayed in such films as Geert Wilders' and "Submission" by the late Theo Van Gogh and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, will suffer from being tarred with the fanatics' brush. But these so-called moderates too must bear some of the criticism for not speaking up against the extreme actions of their co-religionists.

If the result is to empower the moderates within Islam, then that will be all to the good.

But experience leads one to fear that the opposite will be the case.

Mayors and Maires

2008-03-24T11:41:00.000Z

What is the most striking difference between the UK and France these days, at least on the level of Middle Eastern policies? Consider the following two reflections on national/local policies and politics.

Mayor Ken Livingstone of London looks likely to be re-elected to office yet again, with the support of the UK labour government, in spite of - or perhaps because of - being accused of anti-Semitism on more than one occasion (he told two Iraqi Jewish businessmen to "go back to Iran and try their luck with the ayatollah" and proffered a Nazi insult to a Jewish reporter). He has been officially cleared of anti-Semitism, but even he would not apologize for his virulent anti-Israel stance. (Of course, according to the European Union’s
Draft Definition of Anti-Semitism, this is indeed equivalent to being anti-Semitic.)

What would have happened in France? We do not need to speculate. As reported in the French Press (Le Parisien, Figaro, etc) of today (24 March 2008) and national TV media, the Sub Prefect (Sous Prefet -something like a Deputy Mayor) Bruno Guigue of Saintes (Charente-Maritime) has been dismissed from office by the French Minister of the Interior, Michèle Alliot-Marie. His offence? He “criticized, without subtlety, the US and Israel” in an internet publication destined for French-speaking Muslims, a diatribe characterized as being “violently anti-Israeli”.

What about Freedom of Speech ? The concept of Freedom of Speech does not extend to the Nazi-like filth that is currently evidenced all over the Arab world and, unhappily, extending in more nuanced form to the British media. Voltaire’s dictum that “I disapprove of your views, but would fight to the death for your right to express them“ must be contextualized by Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes’ injunction “not to falsely cry fire in a crowded theatre”. We are all living in a crowded theatre of global conflict , and inflammatory views such as that of Bruno Guigue, must be firmly stamped upon.

The UK – please note.

Spring is in the Air?

2008-03-11T15:39:00.000Z

Like all love stories, that between Israel and France has had its ups and downs. Perhaps the nadir was when , after the 1967 Six-Day War, Le Grand General , echoing God, called the Jews a stiff-necked people ("le peuple juif, sûr de lui meme et dominateur" ) - or perhaps De Gaulle thought that God was only echoing him.

Prior to that, France, as Israel's main arms supplier and early provider of its nuclear facilities, could claim to be Israel's greatest friend. After the De Gaulle reversal the tilt towards the Arab nations caused something of a refroidissement in relations between the two countries, which continued somewhat unabated until the end of the Chirac presidency.

Comes Sarkozy, and Spring seems to be in the air as far as this particular romance is concerned. Significantly, the first Head of State to be invited on a presidential visit to the Elysée is Israel's Shimon Peres. French TV currently abounds with such Jewish luvvies as singers Patrick Bruel and Enrico Macias supping with the presidents. Peres himself was categorical “No country has aided Israel as much as France.” And this year's Paris International Book Fair has Israel as its Guest of Honour, greeting the inevitable Arab boycott of the event with a Gallic shrug.

Like all relationships, there is always the danger of spurned lovers lurking in the background. The amount of hate-mail directed at France emanating from certain American Jewish sources continues to be disturbing. And like all irrationalities, this cannot be quelled by facts.

Let us hope that this particular affair is more than a springtime romance, and heralds a new era of entente cordiale between two mature and consenting adult democracies.

Irish Films 2

2008-02-21T20:26:00.000Z

The small Irish-Jewish community has produced few internationally-known figures, although at least one became a successful film director. Dublin-born Norman Cohen (1936-1983) who died aged 47 in California, was the director of a series of soft-porn B-Movies such as Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974) which nonetheless helped to define the zeitgeist of the Swinging Sixties in Britain. Perhaps another acclaimed cineaste is on the horizon….

Within a few hundred meters of where I live in Paris there stands the Irish College in Paris (Centre Culturel Irlandais ) founded in 1578. This is situated – where else – in the Rue des Irlandais, a street which itself does not appear to have changed much since the 16th Century - an admirable setting for a scene from Les Miserables. Irish Government–funded, from time to time they put on cultural events with an Irish slant, open to the public. Recently I noted that they were showing an Irish film, and since it was both free and a short walk – I couldn’t resist. And the Director no less would be present in person – and he had a name which I recognized – none other than Lenny Abrahamson, scion of two well-known Dublin families: Lenny’s grandfathers were respectively a respected professor of medicine, and the well-loved proprietor of one of Dublin’s last Kosher butchers.

The film “Adam & Paul” described a day in the life of two drug addicts in North Dublin. Paul was played by a wonderful young actor, Tom Murphy, already a winner of the Theatre’s greatest laurel, a Tony Award, who died tragically in his mid-thirties last October (2007). The screen writer was Mark O’Halloran who played Adam. The dialogue was bleakly realistic – I suppose – the first three words (or so) of the script being “F***! I’m f***ing f***ed” showing at least that this expletive is capable of great dramatic flexibility. Nevertheless, as Abrahamson explained in his post-screening talk, the authenticity was vouched for by several denizens of the North Dublin suburbs, who gave the film – which inevitably has a tragic ending – their thumbs-up. This first full-length film of Abrahamson’s has won several awards, and successfully runs the gamut from despairing misery to high comedy. My favourite scene has the pair failing to get a foreign gentleman to move along a public bench, whereupon they accuse him of being a “f***ing Romanian”. Outraged, he ripostes that he is a “f***ing Bulgarian”. In fact, this great comic actor is indeed a Romanian, and in real life the Romanian Minister of Culture, no less.

Thus encouraged by this sample of the Abrahamson oeuvre, I was moved to spend hard cash on his next effort, “Garage”, which was given full distribution in Paris. I was not disappointed. The same bleakness, the slowness of action, the hopelessness, … Well, it’s not exactly a laugh a minute. But this story of a somewhat inadequate but ultimately good man whose whole world is a two-pump petrol shack in the Irish countryside does indeed capture a mood which is not easily forgotten.

And that is the sign of a potentially great director.

Earthquakes

2008-02-16T19:14:00.000Z

Last Monday (11th February 2008) a light earthquake (Richter 4.0) shook Israel and Lebanon. This brought back memories of the great earthquake which hit Istanbul in 1999 (Richter 7.4). This is my account of the episode in the Times’ Higher Educational Supplement of 3rd September 1999.
________________________________

DON'S DIARY
Istanbul, 16-22 August 1999

Monday 16 August
Istanbul airport is unbelievably crowded and chaotic, and feels hot even after our flight from Tel Aviv where it was well over 30 degrees. I'd just spent a week trying to rejuvenate an old collaboration at the Haifa Technion, and was now about to attend a theoretical physics conference at Bogazici (Bosphorus) University in Istanbul. The great thing - I assure the Accompanying Person (Paulette - daughter Annabel had arrived earlier)- is that there will be the usual cohort of graduate students to meet us and bring us to our hotel. No such luck. Crestfallen, we eventually find a taxi to take us to the Grand Hotel Tarabya. Just too late to attend the welcome reception but, relaxing on a balcony overlooking the Golden Horn,who cares? A good night's sleep, and I'll be fit to start work first thing in the morning.

Tuesday 17 August
Am awakened to what I take to be the sound of a mechanical excavator outside the window. Rather strange for 3.00 in the morning. Even stranger as we are on the 5th floor. And why is the bed moving backwards and forwards? Slowly realise that this must be my first earthquake - go to the balcony to see what is going on. Paulette is also awake by this time so we dress (no sense of urgency here) and descend by the stairs - our one concession to the possibility that the elevators may not be safe. Little knots of colleagues in varying states of undress are gathered at a safe distance from the building; although the staff did not evacuate the building they are not letting anyone back in. We try to find out what is going on from locals sitting in their cars listening to the radio. Everyone thinks that this may have been a fair-sized earthquake - people are crying - epicentre seems to have been at Izmit - about 90 kilometres away. We spend the rest of the night outside, although the hotel does supply drinks and sandwiches. Much discussion as to whether the conference will continue or not, but in the event we all set off from the hotel at 8.30 next morning for the University, only slightly later than planned.
We are by now all aware that this may have been a fairly major earthquake, and in my opening remarks, as a member of the international advisory committee, I pay tribute to the fact that the local organisers managed to start with a delay of only 15 minutes - and this was due to their having to reorganise the transport from the hotel. The first speaker of the session that I was chairing - a rather distinguished senior mathematician from Poland - confessed that as he had the habit of preparing his talk during the previous night, and was unable to do so this time, he would have to repeat an old talk which was not the one programmed. I subsequently discovered that indeed he had gone to the lavatory at 3.00 am and on lowering his posterior to the seat was dismayed to find the seat rising up to meet it. I also gave my presentation on this first day - the lack of sleep seems to have added to the adrenaline flow.

Wednesday 18 August
The scale of the disaster is now becoming apparent, and it is clear that there have been some victims but the number is unknown. We hold a minute's silence. The sessions continue much as usual, but there is a feeling of quiet apprehension in the air.

Thursday 19 August
I assume that I have fully recovered from the events of the previous days, and on seeing the coach waiting to take us to the conference run through the hotel plate glass door, which was unfortunately closed at the time. Spend the next 3 hours on the bed clutching an ice-pack to a large protuberance on my forehead.
Afternoon, the conference boat trip on the Bosphorus, and a chance to talk to colleagues. Am amazed at how irrational physicists can be when they imagine their personal safety is at stake. The Japanese delegates are much in demand for their expertise. Apparently with this type of earthquake the aftershock can be of comparable magnitude - the original tremor was announced to be 6.8 but then re-evaluated at 7.4 on the Richter Scale. And an aftershock was expected that night. Most of the delegates spend the night outside again -apart from those at our hotel, whose staff did not consider it worthwhile - and there was indeed a 5.4 tremor.

Friday 20th August
On advice, try to reconfirm our return tickets. Turkish Airlines inform me that there is a problem - and that they have sold our seats and that all flights out of Istanbul are full. After some frantic phone calls back and forth from England - I get confirmed seats. But it seemed a near thing.

Saturday 21st August
Colleagues quietly exchange disaster stories at breakfast. Have you heard that there is typhus and cholera leaking into the water supplies? Is it safe to shower in the water or should we use mineral water for that too? The scenario is becoming ever more reminiscent of 'Death in Venice'.
In my closing speech of thanks to the organizers, I look forward to further meetings in the series in Russia, France, North America - but get the impression that the overwhelming feeling is one of relief that soon we will be back in the safety of our earthquake-free environments.

Sunday 22 August
On the drive to the airport through Istanbul we see no overt signs of damage, but the route is lined with tents and other makeshift living quarters in which people found it was safer to sleep. In retrospect, we were very lucky, having escaped almost intact - apart from a large bruise on my forehead which will undoubtedly make me a local hero at the Open University.

Irish Films I

2008-02-12T11:15:00.000Z

What is it about Ireland that makes the Irish so artistic? Is it the misty climate, the soft perpetual drizzle, the sulking hills, the green expanses leading to – there you see, I'm doing it now. But the number of “English” poets and dramatists who are really Irish is staggering. And this phenomenon continues into the modern age through the media of film and television, with Irish films and actors continuing to attract international acclaim. As I write,the Irish-Jewish actor Daniel Day-Lewis has just received a BAFTA, and looks set to win yet another Oscar (to add to that of 1993) in the forthcoming Academy Award ceremonies.

The 1997 Irish film I Went Down is arguably Ireland's most successful movie (I quote: A charming and talkatively witty picture, I Went Down has already become Ireland's biggest grossing domestic movie of all time ). This film holds an especial place in my affections, since I may modestly claim to have played a “starring” role in it. The story involves Irish gangsters driving from Dublin to Cork to capture a rival, and bring him back to the Boss in Dublin. Where did I come in? Well, they tie the hostage up in a hotel bedroom and leave him there for the evening, leading to the following hilarious scene (again I quote from the review)

“Other moments, such as a tied up hostage accidentally dropping the remote control -- thus forever leaving the TV on a droll algebra lesson program -- .“

I suppose you have guessed that it is yours truly who is presenting the TV algebra lesson! Of course, I was totally unaware – until the film was broadcast on BBC2 – that they had used my Open University broadcast that way, and was torn between annoyance and amusement. The latter prevailed.

This was my small contribution to Irish cinematographic history.

On Poetry

2008-02-11T17:00:00.001Z

The late theoretical physicist Eugene Wigner remarked on the “unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics” in the natural sciences. By this he was drawing attention to the mysterious fact that mathematics seems to be the natural language of the sciences. Often when I am trying to solve a problem in physics, I have the uncanny feeling that the mathematics, somehow, knows more about the problem and its solution than I do. It is the mathematics that guides me, not the contrary. It is possible to imagine a great scientist without deep knowledge of mathematics – it is said that Michael Faraday was one such. But to capture the essence of science – one needs mathematics.

Mathematics seems to bear the same relation to the natural sciences as poetry bears to literature. Poetry similarly has the potential to capture the essence of a mood, often in as concise a way as mathematics. The extreme limit of conciseness is perhaps exemplified by the Japanese haiku , (17 syllables) but the less formalized sonnet form is a close runner. When I was a very young man I was moved to attempt versions of the latter form on occasion. Here is one example from 1960 - a typical youthful look ahead.

Ode to Youth (1960)

I've seen less years than most; the sighs, the hopes,

The groundless fears are with me still,

Fresh longings and ambitions,

Not "Might have been" but "will".

I've seen more years than some, and walked

In gardens strange, shed tears and felt the touch of one who loved.

The years I long for most of all to see

Are those ahead, the future yet to be.

The only connection with the traditional English sonnet form is the termination on a rhyming couplet. Even a great poet like Wordsworth uses, in what might otherwise have been his great ballad The Thorn , a hilariously inappropriate couplet (concerning a pond in which a baby may or may not have drowned):

I've measured it from side to side:
'Tis three feet long, and two feet wide.

This brings to mind the witticism of Oscar Wilde concerning the death of Little Nell in Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop

“One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.”

The following poem encapsulates my wonder at the grandeur of Science, foreseeing a lifetime spent in its conquest, but terminating with the sort of inappropriate Wordsworthian line which would have amused Wilde.

On visiting the Palais de la Decouverte, Paris 1960

Outside 'tis Nature's world. A breeze

Blows light. The sun shines down on men

Who walk with purpose. Captive trees

Ranged dutifully along the street

Lead to the building, large, ashen,

Hewn from reinforced concrete.

Inside, in spite of gloom, the light

Of knowledge flashes all around.

Glass cases full of facts, held tight,

Extracted from the grasp of dark

By those who would not yield, abound.

What wealth of Science, human force spent, filed, now lies inert

Beneath the dome of the Palais de la Decouverte?

Perhaps it is just as well I stuck to Mathematics!

French Letter 2

2008-02-10T16:13:00.001Z

Speaking the Language
Just as one has difficulty in imagining how a blind man perceives colours, I have no conception of how my carefully articulated French sounds to French ears. This does not prevent me, however, from finding the average Frenchman’s attempts at English excruciatingly hilarious. What is even funnier, is the French idea of what English usage must be – this consists in adding ‘ing’ to every possible noun. Thus we have Le Parking, Le Pressing, Le Shopping, etc. I presume that a Frenchman imagines an English conversation to run as follows.
“Where have you left the car, dear.?”
“Oh, I left it in the local Parking”.
And the English are just as bad. I recall that a now-deceased semi-literate politician thought that he was being most urbane by agreeing that he had been “economical with the actualité” meaning, I suppose he thought, economical with the truth. Except that “les actualités” means “the News” in French – and so a correct translation would not have got him into such hot water. This is reminiscent of what we used to call “faux amis” – false friends – in school: the same word in both languages having subtly – and sometimes not so subtly – different meanings. I remember an interview on UK television with a famous French film director – possibly Renoir –and of course the question came up,” Who is your favourite British or American actor? “ Ah, bien sur, zat Jimmy Stewart; he is the fantastique comedian.” Somewhat nonplussed, the interviewer persisted – “Well, yes, but I would not describe him that way?
Outraged, the Famous Director cried” But of course, he is the Grand Comedian!”
Well, in English I suppose we would refer to, say, Ronnie Barker, as a ‘grand comedian’, meaning a very funny comic; but in French this just means a great actor.
So when you buy your ticket for the “Comédie Francaise”, do not expect to fall off your seat with laughter.

Following the Rules
The French have a written constitution; the English do not. This marks an important difference between the ways both nations view their lives and governance. In England we more or less know what we are expected to do, without having a book of rules thrust at us; while the Frenchman expects a strict codification to govern everything he does. Thus, the Englishman is bemused by the list of priorities for reserved seating in the metro; in descending order, – ‘War wounded, blind civilians, pregnant women’- depending on just how pregnant, this last leading to many unrepeatable jokes. The first French phrase every Englishman must learn is “Vous n’avez pas le droit”. “You do not have the right.” This sentence, innocuous in English, will give any overbearing French functionary pause for thought, as he desperately mentally consults the codes governing the particular path of conduct he is about to embark on. As an impoverished student in Paris in the Sixties, when France was fighting the Algerian uprising, and terrorism was rampant in the streets, I decided one morning to fill a suitcase with my dirty laundry and go to the cleaners. On the way, I passed the American Library, and on a whim went in to consult a book. The sight of a scruffy young man carrying a suitcase into a US building was enough to throw everyone into a panic. A burly French guard approached me and demanded to open my suitcase. Disturbed about airing my dirty linen in public, I used the magic phrase: “Vous n’avez pas le droit!”. After a hurried consultation, I was allowed to proceed unhindered.

The ‘Trottoirs’
While pavements in England are for pedestrians, and in the US for cars, in France they are for both. And certainly they are a bonus for motorcyclists on their ‘motos’, who will leave the highway at any sign of a slow-down, to continue on the footpath, unheedful of any danger to those pedestrians foolhardy enough to assume that they are the sole proprietors of the ‘trottoir’. But the king of the ‘trottoir’ is the dog. The French have no scruples about allowing their canine companions to use the trottoir as a vast linear lavatory. No shamefaced scurrying to the side of the road here; our French poodle will proudly fulfill his ‘devoirs’ in the middle of the footpath as and when the moment arrives. Thus, as one walks along this great city, the beauty of Paris must give way to the more urgent task of carefully scrutinizing the pavement lest one returns home with an unwelcome reminder of ones sightseeing perambulation.

The French and BSE
Nothing illustrates better the difference between the British and the French than their attitude to the BSE crisis. Of course, both peoples are united in not believing a word that passes their respective government’s lips, but the French government’s approach was rather more subtle. In the UK, our masters started off by assuring everyone that all meat was perfectly safe, even force-feeding their protesting daughters with hamburgers on television to ram home the point. Naturally this induced an immediate panic on the part of the British, with nobody wanting to go near a piece of meat, and a resultant crisis in the livestock industry. Having learnt their lesson, the government adopted the cunning stance of actually banning beef on the bone; at which point, of course, everyone went on a meat-eating rampage, with flamboyant beef-on-bone parties hosted by various royals. The beef industry was saved.

At the start of their BSE crisis, the French government, on the other hand, announced that not only was all meat absolutely lethal, but this applied to salmon and poultry too. Thus reassured, the Frenchman continued to consume his biftek and frites as before with a clear conscience, and nobody was the worse off.

A new form of transport..
The eccentric multimillionaire inventor Dean Kamen is reported to be about to reveal a revolutionary new form of individual transport, which is reckoned to be the greatest innovation since Clive Sinclair’s C5 of the eighties.
Well, I reckon I am ahead of him there. In Paris I have discovered a form of transport which is non-polluting, does not depend on the vagaries of the bus or the metro, is not affected by leaves on the rails, and utterly disregards traffic congestion. Furthermore, it is instantly available, and there are no parking problems at the end of the journey, and it is only slightly weather-sensitive. The cost is minimal; shoes have to be repaired or purchased at regular intervals. I refer of course to the oldest means of transport of all, walking.

Paris is a city whose beauty can only be appreciated on foot. The Seine and its bridges, Notre Dame and its gargoyles, the street markets, the parks. The list is endless, and all within walking distance, unlike London, whose periphérique – the M25 – has a circumference which is itself half the distance between London and Paris.

Paris is a city which, like Manhattan, it is still possible to traverse on foot from North to South, or from East to West. Walking, the most reliable form of transport. I’m thinking of taking out a patent.

The French and Health
It is said that a Frenchman travels with two suitcases, one for his clothes and the second for his medicines. Factually the national spend on prescription drugs is very high in France; it remains to be proved that the Frenchman is healthier for it, although he is, to a man, a card-carrying hypochondriac.

The French Health Service regularly invites every French adult to attend a full check-up. As I never turn down anything free, I went along. It turned out to be dramatically exhaustive; ECG, chest x-ray, Blood Pressure, vision, hearing, teeth, a thorough top-to-toe oscultation. And that was only the first day. A further visit is devoted to tests necessitating a period of preparation before various bodily fluids are extracted. Before I turned up, I filled in a questionnaire in which I gave myself 8/10 for fitness - well, I thought 9/10 would sound like boasting. By the end of the first day (teeth bad, eyes bad, ears bad,.....) I felt that 3/10 would have been an over-optimistic appraisal.

The French Medical system has turned me from a happy ignoramus into an unhappy if wiser man. But still no healthier.

French Letter 1

2008-02-10T16:04:00.000Z

Prologue
I wrote these thoughts while spending an academic year Sabbatical in Paris in 2000, substantiating the view that academics have a jammy life. However, the strains of living away from the warm embraces of Watford are not to be underestimated, and I penned this as a grim warning to my fellow countrymen who might be tempted to follow me.

News
What one misses most of all is the News. The French are a trivial people, caring only about the sort of things we British should best avoid, mainly pleasure. Thus while the newspapers in the UK have circulations in the millions, here the papers are read only by a handful of intellectuals, presumably too poor to afford TV sets. And while France is traversing a crisis, the Euro is falling disasterously[1], French beef can not under any circumstances be eaten [2], the main items of news last week were
(1)The appearance of the latest Harry Potter book (pronounced ‘Arree Pottaire’)
(2)The latest Disney Dinosaur film, and
(3)The forthcoming elections in Israel. (Well, that is news everywhere).

The French are convinced, possibly not without reason, that changes of government, natural disasters, wars, nothing can possibly change the French way of life. The baguette must still be purchased twice a day to ensure freshness, wine must be chosen with as much care as one's next mistress, and traffic lights are a suggestion, nothing more.

Ramadan
France is of course one of the two great European Muslim countries, the other being England, and the advent of Ramadan affects one’s daily life noticeably. For example, it is the best time to invite one’s Muslim friends out to Lunch, as they are obliged to refrain from eating, drinking and sexual intercourse; at least, during the hours of daylight. Undoubtedly they make good any shortfalls as soon as the sun sets. Nevertheless, it is pleasant to be able to eat in the University Restaurant without having to form a queue, or to offer the delivery boy a drink in lieu of a tip, without risking that the offer be taken up.

Restaurants
You may have learnt at school that restaurants are establishments where the French go to eat. Nothing could be further from the truth. One goes to a fashionable restaurant to be seen, to a secluded one to seduce, to the local bistrot to play cards with ones friends, but – above all – the French go to restaurants in Paris to smoke [3]. As soon as they are shown to their table, the diners place their packets of Gauloises and briquets firmly on the table, light up before the first course, puff feverishly between courses, and if the food is not up to scratch – but how can they tell? – during courses. However, for the non-smoker all is not lost. Restaurants are obliged by law to set aside a non-smoking area for those eccentric diners who do not appreciate the real purpose of the French restaurant, There they can sulk, subject to the disdain of their more hardy fellow-diners, and encircled by the fumes they exhale.

The Law
It is said that you can divide countries into categories according to how the law is applied: in a liberal democracy everything is permitted unless it is explicitly forbidden. In a totalitarian regime, everything is forbidden, even if it is permitted. In France, everything is permitted, even if it is forbidden. Beware of traversing a pedestrian crossing when the Little Man is green; the macho French driver will take this as a direct challenge, with grim consequences for the less fleet of foot. The attitude is best summed up by the small Parisian schoolboy of surely no more than nine, satchel on back, who asked me why I had walked to the back of the bus to get off, when I was riding in the front. I told him “Because it is forbidden to descend by the front door”. He shrugged his shoulders. “ Pouf, it is forbidden. But everybody does it." This approach smoothes the daily life of your average Parisian Motorist to a point the law-abiding English can only dream of. Missed your turning? No problem, go back up this one-way street – backwards, if it happens to be arrowed the wrong way. Parking difficult? Not while there is space on the pavement. No metro ticket? Just a small hop over the turnstile, nobody minds.

Watford will take some getting used to when, or rather, if I return.

Paris, 1 December 2000.

NOTES
[1] The Euro has appreciated in spades since 2000!
[2] This was the Mad Cow Crisis of 2000.
[3] Who would have dreamed in those days that the French would ban smoking in January 2008?

Jewish Life in France

2008-02-10T03:00:00.000Z

As a British Jew who spends a lot of time in France, I have been very surprised to see old canards in the form of emails recirculating, mostly emanating from the United States, concerning the sorry lot of Jews residing in France. Apart from Israel, I have never felt any country more congenial to live in as a Jew than France. Of course, much of this is subjective, and it is undoubtedly true that France is also home to the largest Muslim population of Europe [1], many of whose youngsters feel discriminated against and who adopt hostile attitudes towards their Christian and Jewish fellow-citizens. It should also be noted that France boasts the largest Jewish population in Western Europe [1] .

But what country other than France would have elected as President someone who, even before the election, loudly proclaimed his Jewish roots? (Three major contenders for nomination as their party’s presidential candidate in the last election – Nicolas Sarkozy, Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Laurent Fabius – were Jewish or half-Jewish.) Certainly this could not happen in the United States; there never has been, and I believe never will be in our lifetime, a Jewish President of the United States, nor indeed a Jewish Prime Minister of England (Disraeli was a Christian by conversion). On the other hand, the Prime Ministers and Presidents of France can count several Jews among their ranks (one of whom, Leon Blum, was elected Prime Minister THREE times) [2] not counting those only of Jewish origin like the present President Sarkozy. And let us not forget the only Jewish Cardinal, Lustiger, born Jewish and died Jewish[3].

In fact, Napoleon was the first leader in Europe to grant liberty, equality and fraternity to all religions. including the Jews, declaring France to be the "homeland of the Jews". To their credit, the French have admitted and faced up to their atrocious behaviour - like that of nearly all of Europe - during the Second World War. Numerous expositions in the various arrondisements in Paris regularly retell the stories of the deportation of French Jews. Since the time of Napoleon, apart from this terrible Vichy period, the Jewish status and institutions in France have been strongly supported by the otherwise strongly secular French Government.

Thus it was no great surprise to see the 900^th anniversary of Rashi celebrated by a standard French postage stamp. I do not recall any such celebrated Jewish scholar on a US stamp. The French media adopt a far more balanced attitude towards Israel than does, for example, the US-based CNN. And when I want to see an Israeli film, I merely walk to my nearest cinema; the French are great cinema-goers, and Israeli films are very popular here.

There is not nearly as much indigenous anti-Semitism in France as there is in the United States. Hate groups, such as the US-based National Socialist Movement (and many others - see http://judaism.about.com/od/americanjewry/a/am_nazis.htm
for a listing) would receive short shrift in France. Even Le Pen's Front National is a very mild relation of the British National Front, xenophobic but with a pro-Israel platform. For some time hate-preaching Imams have been summarily deported from France, an action taken only recently, long overdue, by the UK government.

The French equivalents of Jimmy Carter, and Walt and Mearsheimer, are thankfully few and far between. Jewish philosophers such as Bernard-Henri Levy and Alain Finkielkraut are omni-present pundits on French TV , while the Paris-based Jewish radio station Radio J is considered an authoritative source for the general media (other French cities also have their own Jewish radio stations – I do not know of any in the UK). A venerable weekly Jewish slot on mainstream television (Channel 2 TV) features such items as talmudic discussions from Adin Steinsaltz and other luminaries (a series undreamt of in the UK).

Paris abounds with Kosher restaurants; London with a slightly smaller Jewish population[4] has proportionately very many fewer. Synagogues are plentiful – look at the metro map for the Stars of David.

All in all, France may not be Israel, but it's the next best thing, and the cuisine is better.

__________________________________________
NOTES

[1] Muslim population estimated at 6-8 million; Jewish population 750,000.

[2] Alexandre Millerand (president 1920–4), Léon Blum (Prime Minister 1936-7, 1938, 1946-7),Pierre Mendès-France (Prime Minister, 1954-5), Laurent Fabius (Prime Minister, 1984-6)

[3] He requested that Kaddish be recited at his funeral.

[4] London estimated to have approx. 200,000 Jews, Paris 300,000

The Tianjin Synagogue

2008-02-09T19:28:00.000Z

There are only two countries in which I feel no anti-Semitism, Israel and…China. One might argue in the latter case that there are no Jews in China - but then that lack has never inhibited anti-Semites. In fact, there has been a small indigenous Jewish presence since at least the 12th Century in Kaifeng - an ancient capital. No one is quite sure of the origin of that community, and anyway it is quite extinct since the 18th Century - with only the odd unsubstantiated report of local Chinese traders counting strangely in Hebrew, since 'their ancestors did so'.

The modern Jewish presence in China dates from the mid-nineteenth Century, with the migration of Baghdadi Jews to Shanghai (1843-1920). This was followed by Russian Jews fleeing pogroms, notably to Harbin - my cousin married a girl from that city - as well as Shanghai, and Tianjin (1920-1937). Finally, there was the great migration of Jews seeking refuge from the Nazis (1938-1952), mainly to Shanghai. At one point there were more than 30,000 Jews living in Shanghai, which fell under Japanese occupation during the Second World War. The Japanese detained foreign Jews in a ghetto, but stopped short of obeying instructions from their Nazi allies to murder them. The Japanese behaved most cruelly, but impartially, to all their captives independent of race (except the Chinese), and lacked the European cultural attitudes necessary to perform genocide on Jews.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Jewish presence has declined, with emigration to Israel, the United States and Australia. In fact, although I had visited Tianjin several times, I was unaware that there had been a Jewish presence there, until I had a phone call last year from my friend Joe, a physics professor from New York. "Allan, I hear that you're going to a meeting in Tianjin. They're going to raze the Tianjin synagogue to make way for a Metro station, and I want you to get some pictures of it if it's still there- maybe arrange for a plaque or something."

So on our free afternoon, I arranged for a small party to set off to find the synagogue. This was facilitated by the local students, who made up the party by accosting the conference participants, demanding if they were Jewish (no inhibitions there). (In fact, one Chinese delegate from Singapore stared at me dubiously, à la hoary joke: "You Jewish? You don't look Jewish." It transpired that he was only familiar with Singapore's Sephardi Jews who looked more like my wife.)

But at least we will have a permanent pictorial record of Tianjin's synagogue.

[Material on China's Jewish presence 1834-1952 from Shanghai Jewish Center www.chinajewish.org. Japanese occupation story from Dr Helen Au Yang. Photo taken Tianjin, 26 August 2005 by AIS.]

Israeli Films 1

2008-02-09T18:17:00.000Z

I spend a lot of time in Paris, and as there are an immense number of cinemas within easy walking distance of where I live, in the Fifth Arrondisement, I get to see all the Israeli films. Unlike in the UK, Israeli movies are shown in main-stream cinemas, not art houses. Unfortunately, most such films are produced by leftists such as Eytan Fox or Amos Gitai, which means they are usually anti-Israeli or pro-homosexual or – most frequently – both.
Fox's “Walk on Water” is a good flick – thriller but more subtle than the usual Bond-type, and only a minimal amount of the obligatory homosexuality. His latest “The Bubble” takes the gay theme to the shockingly explicit limit, but is a good description of the Mid-East conflict (yes, you guessed it, the lovers are a Palestinian chap and an Israeli soldier). If even kissing on screen offends you – the best fairly recent film is “Ushpizim” - a term which refers to the mystic guests during Succoth. Produced by an all-ultra-Orthodox cast, it can be viewed on several layers – most superficially as a film about a childless couple living in Mea Shearim visited by the husband's ex-jail mates. At a deeper level it explores the philosophy of the 18th century Hassidic Rabbi Nachman of Breslau. (You must have seen the Israeli stickers everywhere – Na Nach Nachman – apparently he stuttered.) Probably the best Israeli film I have seen in recent times – and it's in easy Hebrew (I don't know if there is a subtitled version.)

“The Band's Visit” (Bikur Ha-Tizmoret, 2007) tells the story of an Egyptian Police Band who find themselves by error in a small town in Israel. The characters are well drawn – and that is the strength of the film. Of course, since it is an Israeli film, the Egyptians are portrayed as handsome, sensitive, intelligent, while the Israelis are shallow, immoral and terrifically ugly. But as a clash – or rather, a misunderstanding – of cultures it is a film worth seeing. So get the DVD.